27 December 2022 :

The People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City has sentenced a woman from Hanoi to death for trafficking 9.9 kilograms of heroin.
Le Kim Loan, 55, received the death penalty during her trial on 26 December 2022 over her conviction for illegally selling drugs.
The case file showed that police in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District caught Loan red-handed storing drugs for sale on Kenh Tan Hoa Street in Tan Phu District at 4:00 pm on March 1.
Officers confiscated a paper bag containing 704.54 grams of heroin from Loan’s motorcycle at that time.A follow-up raid on Loan’s residence in District 11 resulted in the seizure of another 26 bricks of heroin weighing more than 9.15 kilograms.
Loan then admitted to trafficking drugs for VND3 million (US$127) per brick of heroin as per the order by a man she only known as Ut Lai, whom she had got to know while selling street food on Phan Van Hon Street in District 12 the month before.
Ut Lai had another unidentified man deliver 28 bricks of heroin to Loan’s house on February 28.
Police officers arrested the woman when she was delivering two bricks of heroin to a man named Minh at 125 Khuong Viet Street in Tan Phu District on March 1 as per Ut Lai’s instruction.
But Loan’s failure to provide the exact identities of Ut Lai and Minh means no legal ground for further investigation against those two people.
The trial panel considered Loan’s criminal behavior particularly dangerous to society, affecting both public order and drug-related crime prevention.
It is thus necessary to remove the woman from social life permanently.

07 December 2022 :

A court in the central Quang Tri Province sentenced three men to death on 29 November 2022 for sending three kilograms of methamphetamine through an express delivery company.
Le Ngoc Anh, 34, Nguyen Ba Chung, 27, and Nguyen Huu Loc, 25, of Dong Ha Town were found guilty of "illegal transportation of narcotic substances," by the Quang Tri People's Court.
In August last year Anh had been hired over phone by an unidentified person to receive, pack and deliver the meth to nearby Quang Nam Province. He would be paid VND40 million (US$1,600).
Anh hired Chung for the work and promised to pay him VND20 million.
On September 1 he went to an alley on Ham Nghi Street in Dong Ha to receive the drugs from Loc, took it home and hid it.
Later he wrote a person's name and address on the drug package and told an acquaintance to send it through a local package delivery service, take a photo of the receipt and sent it to Chung.
The acquaintance did not know what was in the package.
Anh received the VND40 million the same day and gave Chung VND13 million, and promised to pay the rest later.
The delivery company checked the package and discovered the meth and promptly reported to the police.

08 September 2022 :

Two people in Hanoi were sentenced to death on 31 August 2022 after throwing drug-related parties and selling/storing narcotics inside a mental hospital.
Nguyen Xuan Quy, 39, received death for storing, facilitating using and selling narcotics. His accomplice Nguyen Van Ngoc also received death for facilitating using and selling drugs, as determined by Hanoi People’s Court.
Four others, Nguyen Cong Thuong, Nguyen Trung Nguyen, Le Hoang Hai and Bui Chi Hai, received jail sentences from 7.5 years to life sentences.
Prosecutors said Quy had previously been diagnosed with a mental disorder and it is now in a stable state. At the time when the crime was committed, Quy had enough control over his awareness and behaviors, and so he was trialled normally.
They said Quy and his accomplices had either stored, used or traded over 15 kilograms of drugs at the National Mental Hospital 1, prosecutors said.
At the end of 2020, Quy renovated his hospital room with loudspeakers, strobe lights and the likes to serve drug parties. He also invited several addicts at the hospital to buy and sell drugs with him.
Since March 2021, Quy instructed Ngoc, Thuong and Xuyen to deliver drugs, paying them VND1 million ($42.62) each time and allowing them to use drugs for free.
He also gave Do Thi Luu, former department head of the hospital, VND10 million to each month and threw multiple drug parties with other employee Nguyen Anh Vu, Nguyen Minh Hue and Bui Thi Hat.
Quy's accomplices were busted by police while they were selling drugs in Thuong Tin District on March 20, 2021. Quy's place was also busted the same day.

06 September 2022 :

The People’s Court in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on 3 August 2022 sentenced seven people to death for illegally transporting over 45 kilograms of narcotics in 2020.
The death penalty was handed down to Le Duy Linh, Tran Van Thuc, Nguyen Minh Thiet, Huynh Van Ly, Le Van Thanh, Nguyen Van Thai, and Nguyen Trung Hieu.
All were convicted of the illegal transportation of narcotics, though Linh was also found guilty of trading, possession of narcotics, and organization of illegal drug use.
An eighth and ninth individual also present at the trial received a life sentence and 20-year sentence, respectively, for drug-related offenses.
The indictment showed that police in Dong Thap caught Thai transporting 45.3 kilograms of narcotics, including over seven kilograms of heroin, ten kilograms of methamphetamine, 11.3 kilograms of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, and nearly 17 kilograms of ketamine, at around 10:00 pm on 15 August 2020 to carry out a transaction in Ho Chi Minh City.
Officers later expanded their investigation and arrested six other suspects.
The final two individuals surrendered themselves.

01 September 2022 :

Pham Van Tang, 32 years old, was sentenced to death on 26 August 2022 in Vietnam for driving a motorbike carrying 9 kg of drugs and running at police while under siege in Vu Quang district.
The first-instance judgment of the People's Court of Ha Tinh province declared Pham Van Tang, residing in Son Giang commune, Huong Son district, guilty of illegal possession of narcotics, according to article 249 of the Penal Code.
According to the indictment, around 10 pm on 25 January, Ha Tinh police secretly dressed and ordered to stop Tung's motorbike at Ho Chi Minh Street, the section through Huong Minh commune, Vu Quang district, for suspicion of transporting prohibited goods.
Authorities allege, Tung increased the throttle to run, crashing the car into a group of policemen standing in front to escape. After a few hundred meters, he was restrained. At the scene, the functional force collected 9 kg of synthetic drugs and ketamine.
Donated to declare that the above drugs originated from Laos, was contacted by an unknown man, asked for transportation to the South, and after the job, he will be paid a salary of 40 million VND. Giving the partner 20 million VND to transfer in advance "as a news".
On January 25, the partner called Tang, asked to go to the border area of ​​​​Vu Quang district to receive drugs, and told him to find a way to send goods by passenger car to the South for consumption. Donated and received the bag, put it on the motorbike to go home, when it was revealed in Huong Minh commune.

31 July 2022 :

Five men were all sentenced to death on 27 July 2022 in HCMC (Vietnam) for transporting almost 300 kg of methamphetamine to the Philippines in 2019.
Two Chinese men - Wu He Shan, 59, and Huang Zai Wen, 55, - were found guilty of "illegal transport of narcotic substances".
Three Vietnamese, Thao No Pao, 48, Ly A Vu, 35, and Thao A Do, 40, of the northern Dien Bien Province, were also handed death sentences.
According to the jury, the five were "dangerous to society" and should be "eliminated."
They belong to a major drug ring operating in the region, and their arrest was possible due to cooperation between Vietnamese and Philippine police.
The case is not yet closed in Vietnam since the police are still searching for five others working for the gang.
Prosecutors said there was enough evidence to conclude that Wu, Huang and their Vietnamese accomplices had sought to smuggle drugs from HCMC to the Philippines.

04 May 2022 :

A court in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum sentenced two Chinese men to death on 16 April 2022 for running an operation producing over 11kg of methamphetamine.
Cao Zi Li and Jian Huang, both 59, identified as the ringleaders, were found guilty of ‘illegal production of narcotic substances.’
Another Chinese accomplice identified as Yang Yuan De was sentenced to life imprisonment while five others, including a Vietnamese national got jail terms of between 34 months to 20 years.
According to the indictment, Cao was sentenced to life in China for illegally trafficking drugs in 2002. In October 2017, Li was granted amnesty and released from prison.
However, he contacted some Chinese compatriots to move to Vietnam to open a methamphetamine production factory.
Since March 2019, Li and a group of his compatriots rented two factories in Dak Ha District of Kon Tum and central Quy Nhon Town to produce meth under the guise of "insecticide production laboratory."
In August the same year, local police responded to tip-offs from locals and raided the factory in Dak Ha District. They seized over 11kg of meth as well as machinery used for producing meth.
Li and his accomplices were arrested shortly after.

03 October 2022 :

After a week of deliberation, on the afternoon of 30 September 2022, the People’s Court of Dong Thap province sentenced defendant Nguyen Trung Thanh, former chief accountant of Pilmico Vietnam Co. Ltd. to the death penalty for the following crimes: embezzlement; Gamble; Forging seals and documents of agencies or organizations; Using fake seals and documents of agencies or organizations.
According to the indictment, in 2013, Thanh was appointed chief accountant by Pilmico Vietnam (100% foreign capital), managing and operating the accounting department, reporting and analyzing business-related issues, finance.
From 2017 to April 2020, Thanh took advantage of his assigned position and authority to appropriate the company’s amount of more than 228 billion VND.
To carry out this act, Thanh forged 124 payment orders of Pilmico Vietnam Co. Ltd. to pay money to partners; 4 deposit contracts between this company and a bank branch in Dong Thap province; 2 certificates of deposit balance and then provided to the audit unit.
From January 2017 to April 2020, two defendants Nguyen Tan Tai (41 years old, living in Cao Lanh city, Dong Thap province) and Tran Van Quang (37 years old, living in Vi Thanh city, Hau Giang province) supporting Nguyen Trung Thanh to gamble in the form of football betting on some websites with servers located abroad more than 143 billion VND, from the amount Thanh appropriated by Pilmico Vietnam Company.
By April 2020, Pilmico International PTL LTD (headquartered in Singapore) requested Pilmico Vietnam Co. Ltd. to transfer VND 330 billion of profit. Since there was no money left to transfer, Thanh admitted his crime to company leaders.
Three months later, Pilmico Vietnam Co. Ltd. reported Thanh’s criminal behavior to the police.
In addition to the death penalty, the jury forced Thanh to pay back more than 82.5 billion VND of illicit profits.

10 April 2022 :

The high-level People’s Court in Hanoi on 5 April 2022 upheld the death penalty handed down to the former director of a bank branch in Hai Phong City, northern Vietnam for embezzling VND414 billion (US$18.1 million).
The second-instance trial of Tran Thi Kim Chi, former director of the OceanBank branch in Hai Phong, and three other defendants concluded on 5 April, with the court rejecting the appeal of all four of them.
At the first-instance trial on 4 September 2020, the Hai Phong People’s Court sentenced Chi to death for embezzlement.
Le Vuong Hoang and Nguyen Thi Minh Hue, who were the financial controller and accountant at the bank, received a life sentence, while Chu Van Nha, the treasurer, was given a 20-year prison term for the same offense.
From 2012 to August 2017, Chi directed Hoang, Hue, and Nha to create 109 fake savings books, fake account settlements, and false loan applications to appropriate nearly VND414 billion from the bank deposit, according to the indictment.
The prosecution agency determined that Chi was mainly responsible for the appropriated money and the damage caused to the bank, while the remaining defendants were held jointly accountable.
At the appellate court, Chi insisted that the capital punishment is too harsh as she did not appropriate money from the bank and customers for personal gain, adding that she has no idea where the appropriated money is.
The jury stressed that the case is especially serious, resulting in damage and losses to national property, thus a strict punishment is necessary to deter similar offenses.
Chi was also required to return VND353.5 billion ($15.4 million) and nearly $2.8 million she had embezzled from OceanBank.
Hoang, Hue, and Nha were required to pay over VND40 billion ($1.7 million) worth of interest.

18 September 2022 :

Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has commuted the death sentence of Dang Van Hien and reduced it to life in prison, Hien’s wife, Mai Thi Khuyen, told RFA on 15 September 2022. 
Hien was sentenced to death by the Dak Nong People’s Court in January 2018 for shooting employees of the Long Son Company who had come to confiscate his home and land in October 2016.  Three people were killed in the incident and 13 injured.
“[I am] extremely happy and moved. Everyone in our family cheered, relatives from both sides [her and his relatives] and friends, all are sending us their congratulations,” Khuyen told RFA. She said that since her husband’s arrest, her family has encountered significant financial difficulties. She has had to work as a farmer to support her family and pay compensation to the victims of the incident. 
Hien’s sentence was widely controversial in Vietnam, where authorities regularly authorize private companies to appropriate land for large-scale projects, often at the expense of individual landowners. The Ho Chi Minh City’s High-Level People’s Court upheld Hien’s sentence at an appeal trial six months after his conviction. 
Del. Luu Binh Nhuong, who serves as the deputy head of the National Assembly's Committee on People’s Aspirations, said in October 2019 that he had forwarded a petition from Hien’s lawyers asking for leniency to his committee to Nguyen Phu Trong, who at the time was president of Vietnam, state media reported.
The petition described Hein as a hard-working farmer without a prior criminal record and argued that the shooting was the result of emotional stress, anger and pressure that employees from the Long Son Company, including the victims, had put on Hien at his residence. The petition said that the employees carried out an unlawful eviction despite Hien’s protests.
In July 2018, then Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang publicly requested the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People's Procuracy and the Ministry of Public Security investigate Dang Van Hien’s case.
The reassessed sentence, which moves Hien off death row and into life imprisonment, appears to end a years-long process that caught the attention of Vietnamese citizens from across the country, many of whom expressed frustration at the government’s land appropriation policies.

28 November 2022 :

A woman who had beaten her fiancé's daughter to death in HCMC last year was sentenced to death on 25 November 2022, while the father received eight years in prison.
The HCMC People's Court gave Nguyen Vo Quynh Trang, 27, the death sentence for murder, while the father Nguyen Kim Trung Thai, 36, received three years for torture and five years for concealment of crimes, totaling to eight years in jail.
The judge panel said that the law does not allow anyone to beat people, especially children. Because Thai’s family did not agree to Thai and Trang getting married and having children, Trang took her anger out on Thai’s daughter, it said.
Trang's action was thus particularly dangerous, as it was against children and for "vile motive," it said.
The trial against Trang and Thai drew particular attention from the public. The HCMC People's Court arranged 300 chairs to accommodate the public to follow the hearings, but a much bigger crowd, including people traveling from outside the city, meant many had to stand.
Police sent extra officers to maintain security and block roads around the court before the trial opened early on Friday morning.
Trang and Thai had lived together for over a year, from the time Thai divorced his ex-wife in 2020. Since that day, Trang had frequently beaten the little girl and forced her to do chores, investigation found. When rods broke due to repeated beatings, she switched to wooden implements.
On December 22 last year, Trang beat the girl so badly she fainted. The girl was taken to hospital but declared dead on arrival. Her wounds and bruises prompted doctors to contact police.

17 October 2022 :

A 30-year-old Hanoian was sentenced to death on 13 October 2022 for killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter by hammering nails into her head.
Nguyen Trung Huyen was also sentenced to four years in prison for deliberate infliction of bodily harm by the Hanoi People’s Court. The cumulative sentence is death.
Huyen committed the murder when he was living with his girlfriend Nguyen Thi Luyen, 27, and her three-year-old daughter in a house in Hanoi's Thach That District.
He said the presence of his girlfriend's child had "affected his own life," so he abused and tortured her so he "would not have to raise her."
Luyen and her husband have three daughters together. The victim is their youngest child, who lived with Luyen after the couple divorced in early 2021.
Huyen had tortured the girl at least four times since September 2021. He had made her drink pesticide, swallow nails and broken her arms before the final incident happened on January 17, investigations revealed. He slapped the little girl many times because she did not reply to his questions and decided to "torture" her with nails.
The mother later rushed her daughter to the Thach That District Hospital and then the Saint Paul Hospital. The girl fell into a coma and succumbed to her injuries two months later. X-ray scans revealed nine nails embedded in her skull.
When questioned about the fact that her daughter had ingested pesticide, Luyen first answered that she had suffered food poisoning, before changing her statement to "she didn't drink anything" and that "I didn’t know anything."
When asked by the judge why she did not realize that her daughter had been beaten so much that her arm broke, Luyen said she only knew what her daughter told her.
"Maybe my daughter was indeed afraid of Huyen," she said.
When Huyen was questioned about Luyen's involvement, he said Luyen did have her suspicions about him beating the girl but did not say anything because they "loved each other too much and had a child together."
But later he changed his tune, saying she "didn't know anything, didn't have to do with anything."
Prosecutors said that while the mother's statements were inconsistent and there were new documents submitted by witnesses, there was still not enough legal ground to file criminal charges against her.

20 July 2022 :

A man who killed his five-year-old daughter by throwing her into the river earlier this year was sentenced to death by the People’s Court in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam on 18 July 2022.
The provincial People’s Court handed down the death penalty to Tran Van Vien, 30, who resides in Tam Hai Commune, Nui Thanh District, for murder.
The indictment showed that Vien and his wife, 30-year-old L.T.T.N., often had arguments.
In early 2022, N. went to Ho Chi Minh City to work, so she sent their five-year-old daughter to her parents, who live in the same commune.
On 16 February, Vien tried to call his wife after drinking alcohol.
As he was unable to reach her, Vien headed to the house of N.’s parents and called N. again with her mother’s phone. N. picked up this time, before the two had a serious row, with Vien suspecting that his wife was having an affair.
After N. hung up in the middle of the conversation, Vien became infuriated and took the daughter from N.’s parents.
He carried the young girl to the Truong Giang River bank, about 1.5 kilometers away, and threw her into the water.
Vien then returned and confessed to his parents-in-law.
After being notified of the incident, local authorities rushed to search for the young girl, while Vien was taken to the police station.
The victim’s body was found early on the morning of 17 February.

14 June 2022 :

A man from An Giang Province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta was sentenced to death for raping a 12-year-old girl before murdering her in order to cover up the crime.The provincial People’s Committee handed down the death penalty to Tran Phuoc Tan, 40, for murdering and raping an under 16-year-old person during the trial on June 8.
On November 3, 2021, Tan and his wife arrived in the latter’s hometown in Phu My Town, Phu Tan District, An Giang, the indictment showed.
Tan then joined N.H.D. in drinking alcohol at D.’s house.
After finding out that N.T.C.V. – D.’s 12-year-old daughter – needed a smartphone for her remote learning, Tan promised that he would buy her the device.
At 2:00 pm on November 6, the man returned to D.’s house and said he would take V. to a local shop to buy a smartphone.
However, Tan instead took the young girl to his rented house in An Hao Commune, Tinh Bien District, and raped her.
The following morning, Tan brought V. to his friend’s house in Tinh Bien District to drink alcohol.
Tan’s wife called him later that day and told him that V.’s family was looking for her.
He then took V. to Ket Mountain and strangled her to death in order to cover up the crime.
He was eventually arrested at the Chau Gian ferry wharf in Chau Doc City.
Police initiated legal proceedings against him on November 11.
Tan had previously been convicted of raping a child and had served an 11-year jail term for his offense.

01 May 2022 :

A man from Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region on 12 April 2022 was condemned to death for murdering his elder sister and stealing their parents’ money last year.
The People’s Court in An Giang Province gave Le Lam Truong, 27, capital punishment for murder and robbery during a trial on 12 April.
The indictment showed that Truong’s parents operate a pawn shop at their home in Chau Thanh District, An Giang.
On 7 March 2021, the parents needed to visit a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for health check-ups, so they asked Truong and his elder sister – 36-year-old Le Thi Kim An – to watch over the house.
At around 9:00 pm the same day, An went to bed with her 10-year-old daughter inside her room, while Truong lied in a hammock at the front of the house.
The man then thought about killing his sister and stealing his parent’s money and gold to pay his debts and for personal spending.
Truong waited until the neighbors fell asleep before taking an iron stick to An’s room.
After An let Truong in the room, he hit her head from the back till the victim collapsed on the floor.
Truong covered An’s mouth and strangled her until she was motionless.
He then broke open his parent’s closet and took VND100 million (US$4,300) and six gold rings.
After Truong left the house, An’s daughter called her father on her phone.
The victim was rushed to the hospital but she had already died.
Truong sold the gold rings at several shops in Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, and southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province for a total of VND152 million ($6,600).
He used the money to buy a new phone, accessories, and other items.
The murderer was arrested in the central city of Da Nang on 13 April 2021.

06 April 2022 :

A HCMC court sentenced a South Korean man to death on 28 March 2022 for killing a woman while committing a robbery almost three years ago.
Lee Hyeongwon, 32, received the death sentence for murder, a jail term of 14 years for robbery and a two-year prison term for theft. He was also ordered to pay VND700 million ($30,700) to the victim's family.
The prosecution called for the strictest punishment, saying Lee had shown "villainous signs and tried to kill more than two people" when committing his crime.
The defendant told the court that he had come to work in Vietnam on different occasions.
On 20 December 2019, while working at a karaoke parlor in District 5, Lee went to Phu My Hung, a residential area in District 7 that is home to the biggest South Korean community in HCMC, to spread leaflets advertising the parlor.
As he took a break at a park nearby, Lee came up with the idea of breaking into a house in the area and robbing its inhabitants, the prosecution said.
He chose the house of Yoon Sang Yong and his wife Jung Young Sook, both South Koreans, to commit the robbery.
He returned to the house that night wearing a raincoat to avoid being recognized via security camera footage.
He climbed into the house where Yoon and Jung lived with their two children from the window on the first floor.
Around midnight when everybody in the house had gone to bed, he went into the kitchen on the fourth floor and got a pair of gloves and a knife.
When Jung discovered Lee and called out for help, he stabbed her in the neck and stabbed the husband several times when Yooh rushed to try and save his wife.
Their oldest child, a 16-year-old girl, also got stabbed as she tried to reach her parents from another room.
Lee then kept the girl hostage and demanded that Yoon open their safe, but for some reason, it could not be opened.
Yoon begged Lee to spare his family, giving the latter a branded leather bag with VND5 million in cash, four smartphones, the house key and a car key.
After taking everything Yoon gave him, Lee took the girl to the room of the youngest child to get another smartphone and got out of the house and drove away in the Yoon’s car.
In Binh Thanh District, he threw five smartphones into the Saigon River before driving to a vacant land plot in Thu Duc City. He burned the car there.
After returning to the apartment he rented with another South Korean, he stole $2,000 from his roommate and fled.
He was arrested four days later, hiding in District 1’s backpacker area.
Jung succumbed to her neck injury later.
Lee said at the court that he was "genuinely" sorry for his act and apologized to the victim’s family.