Trial of girl related to victim of '39 people died in container in UK'
(Baonghean.vn) - After Mr. H. was identified as one of the 39 Vietnamese people who died in a container in the UK, Nguyen Thi Tham was arrested and prosecuted for "Organizing others to flee abroad".
On June 25, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of Nguyen Thi Tham (25 years old), residing in Nghi Tan ward, Cua Lo town, for the crime of "Organizing others to flee abroad".
The indictment shows that, although Nguyen Thi Tham did not have the function of sending Vietnamese citizens to work abroad, she contacted and agreed through other subjects to send Mr. NVH to the Federal Republic of Germany to work illegally.
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| Defendant Nguyen Thi Tham in court. Photo: Tran Vu |
Because her brother was working in Germany, Tham contacted and connected with a woman named Huong (Hanoi) to discuss more about helping people cross the border to Germany.
This person said that workers who want to go to Germany should go as tourists with a total cost of 16,000 USD. Mr. H. agreed to the method and price as above.
On July 15, 2018, H. left for the Russian Federation. About 2 weeks later, a man called Tham to inform her that H. had gone to Germany. Tham went to H.'s mother's house to collect 16,000 USD as originally agreed. H.'s mother gave Tham 15,500 USD and 8 million VND. With the above amount, Tham transferred 15,500 USD to the subjects and pocketed the 8 million.
After a period of time in Germany, Mr. H. crossed the border to the United Kingdom on the fateful truck trip that killed 39 people on October 23, 2019 at the Wateglade industrial park in Essex, northeast of London, United Kingdom. The incident shocked and saddened the world.
Nguyen Thi Tham was later arrested for being identified as being involved in the death of Mr. H.
In the witness stand, Tham said: because the defendant and Mr. H. were friends, when H. asked to take her to Germany, she accepted. The defendant did not know that Mr. H. crossed the border to England and died.
Appearing in court with a 7-month pregnant belly, the defendant asked the panel of judges to reduce her sentence.
The panel of judges determined that in this case, although Mr. H.'s death was not directly caused by the defendant, it had a huge political impact and therefore needed to be dealt with severely.
For the crime of "Organizing others to flee abroad", Nguyen Thi Tham was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
