Heartbreaking cry of 5-month-old baby meeting father for the first time at drug trial

The trial of Lau Ba Tong (born 1986, residing in Nam Can commune, Ky Son) took place quite quickly because Tong's crime was very clear.

Lau Ba Tong and his family migrated to Kha Ma village, Vien Thoong, Bolykhamxay, Laos quite a while ago. Tong and his wife have 3 children together, his wife is pregnant with their 4th child. Life in Laos is not much better than in Vietnam, so on January 22, 2018, when 3 men came to ask Tong to transport 6 heroin cakes to a man named Cong in Na Ngoi commune (Ky Son district) for 16 million Lao kip, Tong agreed.

After reaching an agreement with Tong, the three men left. Tong went to meet Ly Ba Xia (living in the same village), invited him to transport drugs and promised to split the wages. Both of them carried the drugs and walked into Vietnam. At about 4:00 a.m. on January 24, 2018, Tong and Xia arrived at Nam Be village, Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district. Tong called a man named Cong at the phone number given by the three men in advance, and made an appointment to pick up the goods. At this time, Cong informed him that he was in Phu Quac (Na Ngoi), so he told Tong that he would come pick up the goods at 5:00 p.m.

Lau Ba Tong at the trial. Photo: Nhu Binh

As scheduled, Cong showed up but changed the delivery location. Cong told Tong to take the drugs on his motorbike to Nam Can commune to deliver them. Tong put 6 heroin bricks in his pocket, climbed onto Cong's motorbike, and Xia carried a backpack containing 16 million Lao kip and followed on foot.

At around 6 p.m., when Tong and Cong reached Ang village, Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district, they were asked by reconnaissance soldiers from Na Ngoi Border Guard Station in coordination with Nam Can Border Guard Station and the Drug Control Team, Nghe An Customs Department to stop the vehicle for an administrative check. The authorities discovered 6 heroin bars in the 2 pockets of Tong's jacket with a total weight of 1,952.96 grams. Taking advantage of the chaos, a man named Cong abandoned his motorbike and ran into the forest.

At the trial, Lau Ba Tong admitted all the crimes as stated in the indictment. Tong said that “because of ignorance, lack of knowledge and greed”, he committed the crime and wished to receive leniency from the law. The representative of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province, who held the right to prosecute at the trial, said that the amount of drugs that Tong transported was very large, the crime was extremely serious, so he proposed the defendant be sentenced to death.

Tong's defense attorney requested the panel of judges to consider that the defendant is an ethnic minority with limited legal knowledge, confessed honestly during the investigation and trial, and that his family had contributed to the revolution to reduce Lau Ba Tong's sentence.

During the trial, Tong's wife had to run out to the hallway to comfort the 5-month-old baby who had to be held by someone else, then run back inside to listen. The 4-5 hour trip tired the baby out, so he often cried. When Lau Ba Tong was arrested, the baby was not yet born, so today she brought the baby down, hoping that father and son could meet. Hearing the representative of the Provincial People's Procuracy recommend a life sentence, she sat there, wiping away tears.

During the deliberation, the wife was holding her baby and trying to rush to her husband. She handed the baby to her husband, Tong frantically reached out with his handcuffed arms to catch the baby. The baby, not knowing his father, cried and tried to crawl out. Tong hugged the baby, tears streaming down his face. Seeing that scene, the police officers who were escorting him could not bear to separate Tong and his father because if the request of the representative of the People's Procuracy was accepted, who knows, this might be the only time Tong and his father would meet.

It was crowded and strange, the boy cried so hard that Tong had to return the child to his wife, tears streaming down the cheeks of the man with four children who had once risked everything to transport the “white death”. If Tong’s transport mission had been successful, who knows how many families would have been broken, how many children would not have been held by their fathers like Tong’s? “It’s all because of poverty and ignorance”, the older man, who seemed to be Tong’s father, defended.

After deliberation, the panel of judges determined that the defendant’s crime was particularly dangerous, but the defendant was only a hired worker who committed the crime due to lack of legal knowledge, so it was not necessary to remove Lau Ba Tong from society. Considering the case as a whole, the panel of judges sentenced Lau Ba Tong to life in prison.

The trial ended, Lau Ba Tong was escorted to the car to return to the prison. Tong's wife hurriedly hugged her child and ran after him. Tong turned back and said something in Mong, looked at his child and then got into the special vehicle. Tong had the rest of his life in prison to think about the gains and losses that greed brought, but Tong's child would not have the happiness of being held and cared for by his father like other children. He still slept in his mother's arms, not knowing that the road ahead for the four siblings would be very difficult and deprived without their father by their side.