Charge changed, subject who threatened the Chairman of Bac Ninh province received 36 months in prison

Accordingly, at the trial, instead of the crime of "Terrorism" as before, Nguyen Trong Phuong (born in 1980, residing in Phuc Xa ward, Ba Dinh, Hanoi) was prosecuted for the crime of "Threatening to kill", according to Clause 2, Article 103-BLHS 1999. And closing the case at the first instance stage, the People's Court of Bac Ninh province decided to sentence this defendant to 36 months in prison.

The trial clarified that Nguyen Trong Phuong and his wife originally opened Song Loc Company Limited (abbreviated as Song Loc Company) with many business lines, including construction materials and sand and gravel mining.

Before the incident, Phuong knew and did business with Mr. Ngo Thanh Son (born in 1980) - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Downstream Salvage Company and Tran Anh Thuan (born in 1981) - Deputy Director of Khanh Nguyen Import-Export and Transport Joint Stock Company.

Defendant Nguyen Trong Phuong at trial

In September 2015, Song Loc Company requested the People's Committee of Bac Ninh province to allow dredging, clearing and collecting products on the Duong River (from Km 03 to Km 14), from Cao Duc commune to Dai Lai commune (Gia Binh district) and at Dao Vien commune (Que Vo district) but was not approved.

At the same time, Phuong saw that Mr. Son's company was still licensed to operate on the Cau River, in Bac Giang province. Remembering the previous problems with his friend, Phuong immediately had the idea of ​​sending threatening messages to Mr. Nguyen Tu Quynh, Chairman of the Bac Ninh Provincial People's Committee and the Director of the local police.

Phuong’s goal was that if the leaders of Bac Ninh province were afraid, his company would be granted a license to exploit sand on the Duong River. Otherwise, Son’s company would be in trouble because of the “putting fire in someone else’s hands” scheme.

To commit the crime, Phuong discussed and instructed Thuan to buy a phone and a SIM card to send threatening messages to the leaders of Bac Ninh province. To avoid being detected, Phuong told Thuan to immediately destroy the evidence after sending the message and go near Mr. Son's house to commit the crime.

A few days after making the plan, Phuong asked Thuan about sending threatening messages to the leaders of Bac Ninh province, but he said vaguely that he had "already ordered his subordinates to do it". However, in reality, Thuan did not dare to carry out the plan that the sand mining business owner had outlined.

Suspecting that Thuan had not sent a threatening text message to the Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Ninh Province, on the afternoon of January 23, 2017, Phuong drove to Van Giang District (Hung Yen) and invited his cousin to go out with him. On the way, he told his cousin to drive him to Bac Ninh, and at the same time called his wife to update the phone numbers of the leaders of this province.

Waiting around for an opportunity, that same evening, at a coffee shop near the gate of Bac Ninh Provincial General Hospital, Phuong used a "junk" SIM card to send 10 consecutive threatening text messages to the phone number of comrade Nguyen Tu Quynh - Chairman of Bac Ninh Provincial People's Committee.

In dozens of threatening messages to the provincial leader, Phuong also mentioned the previous murder of the Yen Bai provincial leader in his office to add weight. After committing the crime, on the way from Bac Ninh to Hanoi, the subject immediately threw the phone with which he had sent the threatening messages into the river.

On March 16, 2017, Nguyen Trong Phuong texted Tran Anh Thuan boasting about his “achievements”. So exactly 15 days later, Nguyen Trong Phuong was arrested by the Investigation Police Agency – Bac Ninh Provincial Police.

On the day the incident occurred, Tran Anh Thuan was also mentioned for prosecution for “Failure to report a crime”. However, due to the change in the situation and Nguyen Trong Phuong’s charge being changed from “Terrorism” to “Threatening to kill”, Tran Anh Thuan was not prosecuted.