Death sentence upheld for two suspects in the massacre of 6 people in Binh Phuoc

On the afternoon of July 18, at the appeal hearing, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City rejected all appeals and upheld the first instance verdict against the two defendants Vu Van Tien and Tran Dinh Thoai.

Defendant Vu Van Tien in the dock. (Photo: K GỵH/TTXVN)

According to the Trial Panel, the defendants caused particularly serious consequences, in which Nguyen Hai Duong was the direct perpetrator, was sentenced to death by the Court of First Instance and accepted the sentence. Tien was the person who was invited by Duong to participate and actively assisted Duong in committing the crime. At this appeal hearing, Tien had no mitigating circumstances.

According to the Trial Council, although Thoai did not directly participate in killing the victims or robbing them, he did assist Duong by buying knives.

The first instance judgment that Thoai was an accomplice with an aggravating circumstance was not satisfactory and did not require this circumstance to be applied in the judgment. However, even if this circumstance was not applied, Thoai's sentence would not be reduced, so the Trial Panel rejected Thoai's appeal to reduce his sentence.

The trial panel also rejected the appeal to consider criminal liability for Ms. Tran Thi Trinh (aunt of defendant Nguyen Hai Duong) and proposed to increase the sentence for defendant Tran Dinh Thoai of the victim's family.

Previously, on December 17, 2015, the People's Court of Binh Phuoc province held a first-instance trial of the case and sentenced: Defendant Nguyen Hai Duong and defendant Vu Van Tien to death for the crimes of "Murder" and "Robbery."

Defendant Tran Dinh Thoai was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the same crimes.

In addition, the defendants must also compensate the victim's family a total of 480 million VND.

After the first instance verdict of the People's Court of Binh Phuoc province, the two defendants Vu Van Tien and Tran Dinh Thoai appealed for a reduced sentence.

The victim's family appealed, asking the Court to increase the sentence for defendant Tran Dinh Thoai and requesting consideration of the criminal responsibility of Ms. Tran Thi Trinh (aunt of defendant Nguyen Hai Duong) because they believe that Ms. Trinh is related to Duong's criminal behavior.

Defendant Nguyen Hai Duong accepted the death penalty so he did not appeal and attended the trial in a role related to the content of the appeal./.

According to vietnamplus