Once a village official who had been campaigning against human trafficking, she was suddenly exposed for selling a 14-year-old girl to China after 8 years.
Blinded by the illegal money, Cut Thi Lien colluded with her accomplices to traffic children to foreign countries. Eight years later, when the victims returned to Vietnam, the perpetrators' actions were exposed. Instead of repenting, Lien denied her crime and gave a twisted statement.
Female officer sells children
Cut Thi Lien (born in 1992) was born and raised in Bao Thang commune (now Chieu Luu commune, Nghe An). Although she is an ethnic minority, she has received a full education. Lien is a party member and participates in women's activities in her village. In her work, Lien has participated in mobilizing people to prevent and combat human trafficking.
But then, that woman fell into a trap and sold a child under 16 years old to the other side of the border to get married. The actions of Lien and her accomplices left painful consequences for the child and caused insecurity and disorder in the locality.
The child trafficking case that Cut Lien committed happened nearly ten years ago. Specifically, in 2016, Lien received a phone call asking for cooperation in finding women to sell in China from Moong Thi Y. This subject was married to a Chinese man, so she knew the activities of this criminal.
Faced with the above proposal, Lien agreed and contacted Cut Thi Tuyet (36 years old), residing in Chieu Luu commune (the niece of Lien's brother) to look for young girls. Hearing her invitation, Tuyet agreed to go find people.
After listening to the situation for a while, Tuyet heard that a family wanted to send their daughter to China to earn money to build a house, so she approached them. The next day, Tuyet and Lien went to this house together, met the parents to convince their daughter, Luong TX (born in 2002), to go to China.
Both of them talked about how they would live well there, and if the family agreed to let their child go, they would have 100 million VND, and after 3 years they would take the child back. Hearing this, the father was hesitant because his child was still young. At this time, Tuyet and Lien convinced her that if she went abroad, the family would have money... Faced with the sweet promises of the subjects, the 14-year-old girl agreed.
Two days later, the two took the child to catch a bus. Tuyet then took X. directly to China, while Lien returned home. After arriving in the foreign country, Y took Tuyet and X. to his house. About four days later, the subjects sold the 14-year-old girl to a Chinese man to buy her as a wife for about 250 million VND.
Of the above amount, Y only gave Tuyet 110 million VND to take back to Vietnam. After returning home, Tuyet gave X's parents 100 million VND. The remaining 10 million VND, Tuyet and Lien divided in half, each one half.
After being sold, in June 2024, X. escaped back to Vietnam and filed a complaint with the police about the subjects' actions. On July 26, 2024, Tuyet and Lien went to the police to surrender and report their crimes. However, after being prosecuted, Cut Thi Lien changed her testimony and did not admit to the crimes as she had previously surrendered and confessed.
Defiance
Recently, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of two defendants, Cut Thi Lien and Cut Thi Tuyet, for the crime of Child Trafficking. At the trial, while defendant Tuyet confessed and admitted to her crime, Lien gave a evasive statement.
In court, defendant Tuyet stated that for money, she and defendant Lien tricked and sold the victim to China. Both of them committed the acts as charged in the indictment. In this case, the defendant benefited 5 million VND. After the incident, the defendant felt remorseful and took the initiative to compensate part of the victim's mental damage.
Meanwhile, the defendant Lien did not admit to the act of buying and selling children. The defendant repeatedly asserted that he “did not know about the incident, and did not sell child X.” The defendant also requested the authorities to allow a confrontation between him and the victim. However, the People’s Procuracy, exercising the right to prosecute at the trial, affirmed that the investigation agency had completed all procedures as prescribed.
Previously, the police investigation agency had the victim, defendant Tuyet and related people identify and confront Cut Thi Lien. These people confirmed that Lien was the one who participated in taking X. to China to sell. The police agency determined that X. was tricked into being sold when she was under 16 years old.
At the trial, defendant Lien continuously cried and denied the accusations of the investigation agency. However, this defendant could not provide any evidence to prove that he did not commit the crime.
The panel of judges determined that because of greed, the defendants violated children's rights to physical freedom, honor, dignity, and the right to care and education, and considered children as commodities for exchange, so they needed to be severely tried to punish, deter, and prevent general education.
The defendants’ actions also negatively affected public order and security, causing anxiety among the masses. The defendants were aware that their actions were illegal, but they still deliberately committed them, taking advantage of the difficult circumstances and gullibility of the victims. Therefore, a severe sentence, commensurate with the defendants’ criminal acts, is needed to effectively educate the defendants and prevent the general public.
In this case, defendant Cut Thi Tuyet had many mitigating circumstances, so the court sentenced her to 10 years in prison for the crime of Child Trafficking. For the same crime, defendant Cut Thi Lien was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In addition, the court also ordered defendant Lien to compensate the victim 23 million for mental damage.
Hearing the verdict, the defendant Lien burst into tears. However, those tears were too late. Because the defendant, who once stood up to promote anti-human trafficking, had the heart to help send a 14-year-old girl to a foreign country. The price that the girl had to pay was years of being crushed in a foreign land, and mental trauma that could not be easily erased. And the price that the defendant had to bear today was not only a sentence before the law, but also a sentence of conscience that would last for the rest of her life.