Nghe An Court tries case of 2 sisters sending people to China to get married

On May 27, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial of Lo Thi Van (born 1970) and her younger sister Lo Thi Thuong (born 1975), residing in Yen Hoa commune, Tuong Duong district, for the crime of "Human trafficking".

According to the indictment, in May 2008, Lo Thi H. (born 1987), residing in Yen Thang commune, Tuong Duong district, went to Lo Thi Van's house to ask for ways to contact Lo Thi Thuong (married and living in China).

Defendants Lo Thi Van and Lo Thi Thuong (purple shirt) at the trial. Photo: Nhu Binh

At the end of June 2008, Thuong returned to Vietnam from China. Van said H. wanted to go to China. Thuong said there was nothing to do in China other than marry a Chinese man. H. agreed to go marry a Chinese man.

On July 6, 2008, Van picked H. up and brought him home to Thuong. Thuong took a bus to the northern border and then took H. illegally across the border to China.

Here, through a broker, Lo Thi Thuong sold Lo Thi H. to a Chinese man for 250,000 yuan (equivalent to 75 million VND). After deducting the brokerage fee and travel expenses, Thuong sent Van 5 million and said she would give it to H.'s father. The remaining 21 million VND was for personal expenses.

In 2011, Lo Thi H. fled back to Vietnam. In October 2018, H. filed a complaint against Lo Thi Van and Lo Thi Thuong to the police.

At the trial, Lo Thi Thuong and Lo Thi Van admitted their crimes. Both defendants said they had limited legal awareness, were greedy, and did not know that sending people to China to marry was a violation of the law, and hoped to receive leniency from the law.

Considering the role of each defendant, the People's Court sentenced Lo Thi Thuong to 5 years in prison, Lo Thi Van to 4 years in prison, in addition, each defendant must compensate the victim 10.5 million VND.