2 human traffickers share 26 years in prison

On March 28, the People's Court of Bac Lieu province opened the first instance trial of the criminal case against two defendants Le Minh Duong (34 years old, residing in Phong Thanh Tay commune, Gia Rai town) and Nguyen Van Di (31 years old, residing in An Thanh commune, Ben Cau district, Tay Ninh province) for the crime of "Trafficking in persons under 16 years old".

On December 23, 2023, Mr. LTK (residing in Hamlet 9B, Phong Thanh Tay B Commune, Phuoc Long District) went to Phong Thanh Tay B Commune Police to report that his son LHT (born in August 2008) had left the area the day before. Mr. LTK's family said that LHT had been lured by a friend to go to Cambodia to do "light work, high salary" and could not be contacted.

On December 24, 2023, the Investigation Police Agency of Phuoc Long District Police coordinated with Thanh Phuoc Commune Police to inspect Song Mai motel (Tram Vang 3 Hamlet, Thanh Phuoc Commune, Go Dau District, Tay Ninh Province) managed by Mr. Le Anh Dung and discovered that Le Minh Duong, Nguyen Van Di, Le Truong Lam and Pham Minh Toan were renting rooms there. During the investigation, it was determined that Le Minh Duong and Nguyen Van Di had agreed to hire Vietnamese people in Cambodia to bring LHT to Cambodia through illegal routes and receive wages.

Defendant Le Minh Duong (bottom right corner of screen) at the courtroom of Bac Lieu Provincial People's Court.

The indictment determined that Ly Vu Phong (17 years old, residing in Hamlet 2A, Phong Thanh Tay B Commune, Phuoc Long District), who was working in Cambodia, used the social network Facebook to make friends with LHT, and through Messenger messages, enticed LHT to go to Cambodia to work "light work, high salary". Because he trusted his friend from the same hometown, T. agreed. To bring T. to Cambodia, the two subjects Ly Vu Phong and Nguyen Quoc Bao (both currently in Cambodia) asked the two defendants Le Minh Duong (from Bac Lieu) and Nguyen Van Di (from Tay Ninh) to coordinate to successfully bring LHT to Cambodia on December 22, 2023, 2 days before the subjects were arrested by the police. The salary that the two defendants received was only 6 million VND; of which the defendant Duong received 2 million VND, Di received 4 million VND.

Although they only received a few million VND, the consequences caused by the subjects caused LHT to be taken to Cambodia when he was not yet 16 years old, and to this day T. has not been found or supported to return to Vietnam.

The Trial Panel of the People's Court of Bac Lieu Province determined that the defendants' actions constituted the crime of "Trafficking in persons under 16 years old" as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 151 of the Penal Code. Just because they needed a little money to spend, many people ignored the law, disregarded the lives, honor, and dignity of others; viewed people as goods to be transported, bought and sold. The defendants' actions assisted criminals outside of Vietnam, oppressed Vietnamese people working illegally, and these criminal gangs even forced Vietnamese people to be "sold" outside of Vietnam to participate in fraudulent organizations according to the criminals' purposes. Anyone who did not obey would be beaten and tortured to death. Therefore, the sentence that the defendants received would be extremely severe.

At the end of the trial, the Trial Panel sentenced the defendants Le Minh Duong and Nguyen Van Di, each defendant to 13 years in prison for the crime of "Trafficking in persons under 16 years old".