Stealing telecommunication cables to sell as scrap metal sentenced to 11 years in prison

(Baonghean.vn) - On the morning of March 15, the Military Court of Military Region 4 opened a first-instance criminal trial to try the case of destroying important national security works and stealing property against Tran Xuan Hai and his accomplices.

The defendants at trial.

According to the indictment of the Military Procuracy of Military Region 4, at the end of April 2015, Tran Xuan Hai (born in 1986) invited Dang Trong Son (born in 1979), Dang Trong Long (born in 1986), both residing in Dien Cat commune, Dien Chau district, and Dau Cong Diep (born in 1979, residing in Dien Phuc commune, Dien Chau) to go to the BTS broadcasting station of Viettel Dien Chau Center (belonging to Viettel Nghe An Branch) located in Hamlet 6, Dien Thap commune (Dien Chau) to cut 37m of grounding wire used to protect the station from lightning.

After stealing the ground wires, the group took them to an abandoned house in Dien Binh commune to burn the copper cores and sell them to scrap collectors for 1.3 million VND. The authorities determined that the subjects had caused damage to the Viettel Nghe An Branch of more than 3.8 million VND. Hai, Long, Son and Diep were prosecuted for "destroying important national security works".

About a month later, Tran Xuan Hai, Dang Trong Son, and Tran Xuan Cuong (born in 1993, residing in Dien Cat commune) entered the BTS broadcasting station of Dien Chau Telecommunication Center (under Nghe An Telecommunications) located in Dien Cat commune and cut 38m of grounding wire, causing damage to Dien Chau Telecommunication Center of 8.7 million VND. The subjects also burned the copper core of this grounding wire to sell as scrap for 2.2 million VND.

The actions of Tran Xuan Hai, Dang Trong Son and Tran Xuan Cuong were prosecuted for the crime of "theft of property".

At the trial, the defendants admitted to the crimes as stated in the indictment. After the incident was discovered, the defendants voluntarily compensated the Viettel Branch and Nghe An Telecommunications.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, Tran Xuan Hai was the initiator and therefore must bear primary responsibility. Considering the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the panel sentenced Tran Xuan Hai to 3 years and 6 months in prison for “destroying important national security works” and 10 months in prison for “theft of property”; Dau Cong Diep was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison; Dang Trong Long was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison; Dang Trong Son was sentenced to 3 years in prison for “destroying important national security works” and 8 months in prison for “theft of property”.

As for Tran Xuan Cuong, the panel of judges found it unnecessary to isolate the defendant from social life, so they sentenced him to 6 months in prison with a suspended sentence, and 12 months probation.

Nhu Binh