'Mountain girl' voluntarily sold herself to get money to cure her father's illness

(Baonghean.vn)- Due to difficult family circumstances, while her father was sick, Ch. proactively sought out a woman from the same village named Ke to ask her to take her to China to get married for 80 million VND.

On the morning of May 18, the People's Court of Nghe An province held the first instance trial of the "Human trafficking" case against three defendants: Vi Thi Phong (born 1992) and Vi Van Phao (born 1986), both residing in Binh Chuan commune, Con Cuong district, and Luong Thi Ke (born 1980), residing in Nga My commune, Tuong Duong district.

Of the three defendants, Vi Thi Phong is pregnant with her third child. Testifying in court, Phong said that she had previously married a Chinese man and lived abroad. The couple had two children together. However, because she was engaged to a Vietnamese man, she recently returned to her hometown to marry another man. She is currently pregnant with her Vietnamese husband.

Regarding the crime process, Phong confessed that in early 2014, while living in China, he received a phone call from Ke, discussing the matter of wanting to bring a Vietnamese girl there to get married.

For the crime of “Human trafficking”, the three defendants received a total sentence of 11 years in prison. Photo by Tran Vu.

The girl who volunteered to sell herself was Vi Thi Ch. (born in 1995), residing in Tam Quang commune, Tuong Duong district. Due to difficult circumstances, her father was seriously ill, so Ch. proactively sought out Ke and asked him to take her to China to get married. Ch. also asked Ke to give her family 80 million VND. Ke agreed and then contacted Phong.

When it was time to take Ms. Ch. to a foreign country, Ke was busy building a house. The defendant asked Phong to send someone to take her there. Phong asked Vi Van Phao to take Ch. to Mong Cai (Quang Ninh) for 5 million VND. In early March 2014, Phao took Ms. Ch. to the location that Phong had directed and received the payment as originally agreed.

After arriving in China, Ch. stayed at Phong's house for 10 days, then Phong sold Ch. to a local man for 70,000 yuan (equivalent to 210 million VND). With that amount, Phong sent Phao 90 million VND to transfer to Ke. Ke took 10 million VND and gave 80 million VND to Ms. Vi Thi Luong (Ch.'s biological mother). Ch.'s family used that money to buy rice and food for the family and to treat Ch.'s father.

After a while living there, because she missed her family and was worried about her parents' health, Ch. ran away from her husband's family, took her young child back to Vietnam and filed a report with the authorities.

At the trial, the defendants confessed their crimes and asked the court to reduce their sentences so they could have a chance to start their lives over soon.

After considering the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the panel sentenced defendants Vi Thi Phong and Luong Thi Ke to 4 years in prison, and defendant Vi Van Phao to 3 years in prison for the crime of "Human trafficking".

Tran Vu