Death sentence upheld for taxi driver who killed female supervisor

The High People's Court determined that Tien's behavior was inhumane and required permanent isolation from society, so it upheld the first instance sentence of death.

On the morning of October 16, the High People's Court in Hanoi opened an appeal hearing in Ha Tinh, following the appeal of Nguyen Van Tien (27 years old, residing in Thach Linh ward, Ha Tinh city), the subject who received the death sentence for 3 crimes: Murder, Robbery and Child molestation, in the first instance trial of the case of killing a female supervisor and dumping her body in the river.

According to the indictment, on July 3, 2016, Ms. Pham Thi Oanh (student at Hue University of Education), after finishing her duty as an invigilator for the national high school exam, Oanh asked the teacher to stay in Ha Tinh for personal reasons.

That evening, Ms. Oanh got into a Mai Linh taxi with license plate 38A-11092 driven by Nguyen Van Tien, taking Oanh to attend mass at the church in Thach Ha commune (Ha Tinh city).

After that, Tien continued to take Ms. Oanh to visit the student's house about 500m away and then turned the car around. However, Tien did not take Ms. Oanh back on the correct route, but instead drove around to a deserted field. In the middle of the night, Tien stopped the car, locked the door and demanded Ms. Oanh pay more money or he would kill her.

Panicked, Ms. Oanh struggled and tried to escape, but Tien strangled the victim until she passed out, took 250,000 VND and her handbag.

Tien continued to carry the victim's body back to the city center, moved up a dike with few people passing by, then threw the female supervisor's body down Su bridge (Thach Ha district) to destroy the evidence.

During the interrogation process, Ha Tinh police discovered and prosecuted Tien for additional child molestation charges.

On April 26, the People's Court of Ha Tinh province opened a first-instance trial, determining that Tien's actions were cruel and determined to take the life of another person. The panel of judges sentenced him to death for the crimes of Murder, Robbery, and Child Molestation.

After receiving the sentence, a few weeks later, Tien filed an appeal to the High People's Court in Hanoi because he thought the sentence was too harsh and wanted to return home to "start his life over".

At the trial this morning, the panel of judges found Tien's actions to be inhumane and needed to be eliminated from society, and upheld the first instance verdict for the three crimes mentioned above.

According to Vietnamnet