The People’s Court in Thanh Hoa district in Vietnam’s southern province of Long An on November 24 sentenced Nguyen Mai Trung Tuan, a 15-year-old boy to 54 months in prison for attacking police with acid when local authorities deployed police and militia to seize his family’s land in mid April.
By Vu Quoc Ngu, Nov 24, 2015
The People’s Court in Thanh Hoa district in Vietnam’s southern province of Long An on November 24 sentenced Nguyen Mai Trung Tuan, a 15-year-old boy to 54 months in prison for attacking police with acid when local authorities deployed police and militia to seize his family’s land in mid April.
Tuan, who was found guilty of intentionally inflicting injury on state officials under Article 104 of the country’s Penal Code as the indictment said, will have to pay a compensation of VND42.6 million ($1,880) for his victims.
Tuan’s lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng insisted in the court room that his client is innocent since the boy’s act was not intentional and triggered by police’s violence during the land seizure. The lawyer also said the court used the temporary health tests of the injured policemen which were not carried out in proper procedures.
The court rejected the lawyer’s defense and imposed the heavy sentence over the boy whose last words were to come back to school to continue his study.
Around 60 Vietnamese activists from Ho Chi Minh City and other southern provinces came to Thanh Hoa to attend the open trial, however, they were not allowed to enter the courtroom but stayed outside and listened to a speaker. Security agents closely monitored the activists and tried to bar them from moving around the court building.
The sentence makes Tuan to become the third member of the family to be jailed in the same land grabbing case. In September, his father Nguyen Trung Can and mother Mai Thi Kim Huong were tried and imprisoned for causing public disorder after they opposed local authorities’ seizure of their land seven months ago, with three years and three and half years, respectively.
Also in the case, ten people from two other families were sentenced to between two and three and half years in prison for opposing the local authorities, in the first hearing in mid September.
On April 14, Long An’s authorities sent numerous policemen and militia to evict the three families, including the four-member family of Can and Huong, out of their land for an embankment project. However, they met strong objection from the land owners who have not agreed to the proposed compensation of VND300,000 per square meter.
According to state-run newspapers, the farmers used gas cylinder and knifes to protect their land, and threw acid at policemen, burning 15 officers, one of officer had to seek treatment at the Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray Hospital, according to the local authorities.
Two other policemen were also scratched in their arms allegedly by people attacking them with scissors, the local police said.
Several years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the project which requires land of the three families which refused to give up their lands due to the low compensation prices.
In Vietnam, all land is owned by the state and people only get the right to use land. The law allows the government to revoke these rights at any time, usually by paying compensation.
But it often triggers conflicts and sometimes even violence.
A gun battle by farmer Doan Van Vuon’s family in the northern city of Haiphong in January 2012 among other incidents prompted the government to issue a resolution this April that restricts local authorities in taking land from farmers.
It enjoins authorities to ensure farmers’ legitimate interests are protected if their land is taken over for national security and other public purposes.
Thousands of farmers across Vietnam have gathered in front of government buildings in the capital city of Hanoi to demand for justice as local authorities have grabbed their land for very cheap prices for developing industrial and urban projects.
Many said they have remained no land for crop cultivation while others claimed that they could not buy land for resettlement with the compensation they received for the evicted land.
Land petitioners have been inhumanely treated by police forces which often detained them in police stations and beat them before sending them back to their home localities.
Many Vietnamese have been charged on allegation of conducting activities against on-duty officials when they tried to protect their land. Numerous of them have been imprisoned up to three years.
Last year, land petitioner Dang Ngoc Viet, 42, a recipient in a land compensation deal, opened fire on a group of five officials from Thai Binh’s Center for Land Development Fund, killing one and severely injured two others. Viet killed himself a few hours later on the same day.
The shooting resulted from some disagreement between the murderer and officials in the northern province of Thai Binh, which is adjacent to Haiphong city where farmer Doan Van Vuon was the first in Vietnam to have opposed land coercion by weapon-armed resistance.
Hanoi-based human rights activists said that if the single party-ruled maintains its policies on land management, in which the state controls land and gives locals rights to use it only, there would be more similar tragic cases.
More than 70% of prolonged complaint cases reported in Vietnam so far are related to land disputes in which local governments or authorities-backed investors take land from local people at dirt prices for the so-called development projects.
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November 24, 2015
Vietnam Court Sentences 15-year-old Boy to 54 Months in Jail for Opposing Police in Land Grabbing Case
by Nhan Quyen • [Human Rights]
By Vu Quoc Ngu, Nov 24, 2015
The People’s Court in Thanh Hoa district in Vietnam’s southern province of Long An on November 24 sentenced Nguyen Mai Trung Tuan, a 15-year-old boy to 54 months in prison for attacking police with acid when local authorities deployed police and militia to seize his family’s land in mid April.
Tuan, who was found guilty of intentionally inflicting injury on state officials under Article 104 of the country’s Penal Code as the indictment said, will have to pay a compensation of VND42.6 million ($1,880) for his victims.
Tuan’s lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng insisted in the court room that his client is innocent since the boy’s act was not intentional and triggered by police’s violence during the land seizure. The lawyer also said the court used the temporary health tests of the injured policemen which were not carried out in proper procedures.
The court rejected the lawyer’s defense and imposed the heavy sentence over the boy whose last words were to come back to school to continue his study.
Around 60 Vietnamese activists from Ho Chi Minh City and other southern provinces came to Thanh Hoa to attend the open trial, however, they were not allowed to enter the courtroom but stayed outside and listened to a speaker. Security agents closely monitored the activists and tried to bar them from moving around the court building.
The sentence makes Tuan to become the third member of the family to be jailed in the same land grabbing case. In September, his father Nguyen Trung Can and mother Mai Thi Kim Huong were tried and imprisoned for causing public disorder after they opposed local authorities’ seizure of their land seven months ago, with three years and three and half years, respectively.
Also in the case, ten people from two other families were sentenced to between two and three and half years in prison for opposing the local authorities, in the first hearing in mid September.
On April 14, Long An’s authorities sent numerous policemen and militia to evict the three families, including the four-member family of Can and Huong, out of their land for an embankment project. However, they met strong objection from the land owners who have not agreed to the proposed compensation of VND300,000 per square meter.
According to state-run newspapers, the farmers used gas cylinder and knifes to protect their land, and threw acid at policemen, burning 15 officers, one of officer had to seek treatment at the Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray Hospital, according to the local authorities.
Two other policemen were also scratched in their arms allegedly by people attacking them with scissors, the local police said.
Several years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the project which requires land of the three families which refused to give up their lands due to the low compensation prices.
In Vietnam, all land is owned by the state and people only get the right to use land. The law allows the government to revoke these rights at any time, usually by paying compensation.
But it often triggers conflicts and sometimes even violence.
A gun battle by farmer Doan Van Vuon’s family in the northern city of Haiphong in January 2012 among other incidents prompted the government to issue a resolution this April that restricts local authorities in taking land from farmers.
It enjoins authorities to ensure farmers’ legitimate interests are protected if their land is taken over for national security and other public purposes.
Thousands of farmers across Vietnam have gathered in front of government buildings in the capital city of Hanoi to demand for justice as local authorities have grabbed their land for very cheap prices for developing industrial and urban projects.
Many said they have remained no land for crop cultivation while others claimed that they could not buy land for resettlement with the compensation they received for the evicted land.
Land petitioners have been inhumanely treated by police forces which often detained them in police stations and beat them before sending them back to their home localities.
Many Vietnamese have been charged on allegation of conducting activities against on-duty officials when they tried to protect their land. Numerous of them have been imprisoned up to three years.
Last year, land petitioner Dang Ngoc Viet, 42, a recipient in a land compensation deal, opened fire on a group of five officials from Thai Binh’s Center for Land Development Fund, killing one and severely injured two others. Viet killed himself a few hours later on the same day.
The shooting resulted from some disagreement between the murderer and officials in the northern province of Thai Binh, which is adjacent to Haiphong city where farmer Doan Van Vuon was the first in Vietnam to have opposed land coercion by weapon-armed resistance.
Hanoi-based human rights activists said that if the single party-ruled maintains its policies on land management, in which the state controls land and gives locals rights to use it only, there would be more similar tragic cases.
More than 70% of prolonged complaint cases reported in Vietnam so far are related to land disputes in which local governments or authorities-backed investors take land from local people at dirt prices for the so-called development projects.