The defendant's late repentance and the old mother's pain
(Baonghean.vn) - Despite being seriously ill, Vo Thi Chung still colluded with a number of people to buy and sell drugs. This young woman did not hesitate to spend hundreds of millions of dong to buy "goods" which, according to Chung, was the money used for medical treatment.
Suffering from a serious illness but still selling drugs
Vo Thi Chung (born 1971), residing in Vinh Tan ward, Vinh city. This woman often took the bus to the mountainous district, which she said was to trade agricultural products. From those trips, Chung became involved in drug trafficking.
Specifically, around May 2022, Vo Thi Chung took a bus alone to the mountainous district of Ky Son to meet an acquaintance, Xong Ba Xua (born in 1962), residing in Na Ngoi commune, Ky Son district. The purpose of Chung's trip was to buy drugs to bring back to the lowlands to sell for profit.
Because at that time Xua had a sore leg and could not go buy drugs himself, he invited his wife's nephew, Lau Ba Va (born in 1992), to trade drugs with him. The two sides agreed to contribute 75 million VND to buy 1 heroin cake to sell for profit. The two uncles and nephews calculated that if this deal was successful, they would make a profit of 55 million VND.
To carry out this "business" deal, Lau Ba Va contacted a Laotian many times to order heroin. By the end of August 2022, Va had purchased 1 heroin cake (353 grams) from the Laotian. After successfully purchasing the drugs, Va contacted Chung and arranged a time and place to deliver the "goods".
On October 19, 2022, according to a previous agreement, Va brought drugs to the front gate of Tuong Duong District Hospital to deliver to Chung. However, while waiting for the customer to receive them, the police discovered and arrested him and the evidence.
From Lau Ba Va’s testimony, the authorities arrested the remaining two suspects in the case, Vo Thi Chung and Xong Ba Xua. With the above actions, all three suspects, Chung, Xua, and Va, were prosecuted for the crime of “Illegal drug trafficking”.
Late repentance
On July 18, 2023, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a trial of 3 defendants including: Vo Thi Chung (born 1971), residing in Vinh Tan ward, Vinh city; Lau Ba Va (born 1992) and Xong Ba Xua (born 1962), both residing in Na Ngoi commune, Ky Son district, for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking".
On the day of the trial, in addition to Lau Ba Va and Xong Ba Xua's relatives, the elderly mother of the female defendant Vo Thi Chung also had difficulty attending the trial. Due to her advanced age and weak health, Ms. H. (78 years old, Chung's mother) slowly walked up the stairs into the courtroom. The mother, with her silver hair, sat quietly below, watching the trial of her daughter and accomplices, with fatigue clearly visible on her face. Since her daughter was caught up in the law, the mother has not had a good night's sleep.
At the first instance trial, all three defendants testified about their motives for committing the crime. Defendant Chung told the court that he had metastasized cancer and had heard from others that drugs helped relieve pain, so he contacted Xong Ba Xua and Lau Ba Va to buy them for his own use. Initially, Chung only wanted to buy a small amount, but Xua said he did not sell, only dealing in 1 or more heroin bars. Therefore, the defendant agreed to buy a large amount of drugs for his own use, but was arrested by the police. In response to the defendant's testimony, the court said that one should not rely on the fact that one has a serious illness to justify wrongdoing.
During the trial, the female defendant cried many times, saying that she was fighting a serious illness. After more than 4 years of treatment for the terminal illness, the cancer cells had metastasized to many parts of her body, causing her health to deteriorate. The female defendant expressed remorse and regret, crying many times in court.
Regarding the amount of nearly 130 million VND that the police discovered and confiscated, Chung stated that it was the money intended for medical treatment but he used it to trade drugs. Chung burst into tears and stated that he realized his wrongdoings and hoped the jury would consider giving him the lightest sentence possible so that he could return to his children, receive medical treatment, and take care of his elderly mother.
A mother's pain
While watching the trial, when she heard her daughter explain that she was battling a serious illness and was trafficking drugs to treat her illness, Mrs. H. immediately bowed her head. She was not only hurt because her daughter had cancer, but the greater pain was that her daughter had grown up but was not smart, and had taken to the path of illegal drug trafficking. After so many years of raising and educating her with sacrifice, endurance, and a lifetime of hardship, that child had broken the law.
Therefore, during the short time she had to see her son when the court was in session, Mrs. H. tried to move closer to where her son was sitting to give him some instructions. Amidst the noise, she tried to speak loudly so that her son could hear. However, her short instructions, “Try to reform yourself and fight your illness,” seemed to be lost in emotion.
Trying to hold back her emotions, the mother did not forget to tell her daughter to take care of herself, not to worry about her and everyone at home. In the eyes of the mother, who is nearly 80 years old, with almost all her hair white, her daughter has grown up but is not wise because "not listening to parents is a hundred ways to ruin a child".
Hearing her mother’s reproaches, the defendant repeatedly covered her face and cried. Chung clasped her hands to apologize to her mother, told her to take care of her health, and at the same time, did not forget to tell her to wait for her to return. The late remorse was clearly visible on the defendant’s face at the tearful trial.
The Trial Panel determined that the actions of the defendant Vo Thi Chung and her two accomplices were serious, causing disorder in the locality and endangering society, and required a severe sentence for general deterrence and prevention. Therefore, the Trial Panel of the first instance sentenced the three defendants, Vo Thi Chung, Xong Ba Xua, and Lau Ba Va, each to 20 years in prison for the crime of “Illegal trading of narcotics”.
Hearing the sentence, defendant Chung quickly raised his handcuffed hands to cover his face, his eyes red. Before being escorted home, Chung turned back to look at his old mother many times. Although she loved her daughter, Mrs. H. could only helplessly watch her daughter's figure disappear into the distance. Only when the covered truck left the court yard did the mother with almost all her hair turned white quietly leave...
The pain of drugs will not only stop at the defendant Chung's family but will continue to push many other families into endless pain if there are still people who refuse to wake up, are lazy to work, and hold sinful money to sow "white death" even though they know that such behavior is a violation of the law.
