Followed a friend to jail because of 'being considerate'

On May 7, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial to try two defendants Vi Van Thai (born 1994) and Kha Van Tuat (born 1994), both residing in Xieng Huong village, Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district, for the crime of“Illegal drug trafficking".

The case file shows that on November 25, 2020, Vi Van Thai received a phone call ordering drugs from an unknown woman. Two days later, the woman met him and gave him 97 million VND, ordered 10 packages of pink phien, and 1 heroin cake.

Defendants Vi Van Thai and Kha Van Tuat (in black) were both imprisoned for drug trafficking. Photo: Tran Vu

After receiving the money, Thai invited Kha Van Tuat to go buy drugs with him. The two took a bus to the Dua village area, Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong district to buy drugs. Because they could not buy the "goods", they stayed and waited until the next day.

On November 28, Thai met a man in a mountainous area to buy 5 heroin sticks for 90 million VND. After receiving the "goods", Thai and Tuat moved to the agreed location to deliver them to the customer, but were arrested by the police with evidence of 179.5 grams of drugs.

At the trial, the two defendants admitted to drug trafficking as charged in the indictment. Defendant Tuat said that at first, when Thai invited him to go, he refused, but then because his friend kept calling him, he agreed to go out of “respect”.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, defendant Thai was identified as the mastermind who incited Tuat to commit the crime, so he must bear primary responsibility.

Considering the role and responsibility of each defendant in the case, the People's Court sentenced defendant Vi Van Thai to 20 years in prison and defendant Kha Van Tuat to 18 years in prison, both for the crime of illegal drug trafficking.