From victim to child trafficker
(Baonghean.vn) - Xu was once a victim of human trafficking to China. Although he knew that sending people abroad to sell was against the law, Xu still returned to Vietnam to traffic children.
On August 25, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a criminal trial of defendant Quang Thi Xu (born 1993), residing in Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district, for the crime of "Buying and selling children".
Quang Thi Xu was once tricked by a woman named Thuyen and sold to China to get married and have children. In early February 2012, Xu and Thuyen returned to Vietnam to find women to sell to China. Thuyen told Xu that if they found someone, she would pay them.
About 3 days later, a woman came to see Thuyen. This person said that Mr. Cut Van Dam - the stepfather of Lo Thi D. (born in 1998) agreed to let D. go to China to get married.
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Defendant Quang Thi Xu was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Photo: Tran Vu |
Thuyen discussed with Xu that he would take D. to China to sell; at the same time, he promised that after selling D., he would give Xu 10,000 yuan (equivalent to 30 million VND).
After the agreement was reached, Thuyen gave Xu 4 million VND to deliver to Mr. Dam and paid Xu 1.5 million VND in advance for the service. Xu then gave 4 million VND to Mr. Dam to take D. to his house. At his house, Xu told D. to go to China to get married or go to work. Hearing that, D. did not agree.
Xu called Thuyen to tell her that D. did not agree to go. Thuyen told Xu, "We have to make him go because his stepfather has already received the money." Hearing Xu say that his stepfather had already received the money, D. kept quiet and agreed to go to China.
Thuyen then sold D. to a Chinese man to marry. Xu later contacted Thuyen to get his payment but was cut off from him.
After 7 years of being sold to a foreign country, in 2019, D. escaped back to Vietnam. The victim then filed a complaint with the police.
At the trial, Xu admitted to his crime. The defendant admitted that he had been a victim of human trafficking and knew that the act of bringing people to China to sell was against the law, but still did it out of greed. At the time D. was sold, he was just over 14 years old.
After a comprehensive review of the case, the panel sentenced defendant Quang Thi Xu to 10 years in prison for the crime of Child Trafficking.
Regarding D.'s stepfather, the investigation determined that he only knew that D. worked in Quang Ninh according to the words of a woman of unknown origin. Before taking D. to work, Mr. Dam asked his wife and child, and they agreed, so he took D. away. Because he did not know that Xu and Thuyen took their child to China to sell, there was no basis for criminal proceedings.
As for Thuyen, because this person is not present in the locality, the investigation agency will verify and handle the case later.