Letter from a father: Demand the Vietnamese Authority to review dead penalty for my son Nguyen Van Chuong

Danlambao | Dec 28, 2014

My name is Nguyen Truong Chinh, born in 1945, I am currently residing at Hamlet 1 Binh Dan Village, Kim Thanh, Hai Duong Province. My telephone number is 01626627673 (+84 1626627673). I am writing this letter in desperation, asking you for help by calling on the Vietnamese Government to review my son’s – Nguyen Van Chuong – case.

Having a son on dead penalty and soon to be executed, like many normal parents, we could not described the pains and heart aches we have endured in the last 8 years to see my son was unjustly put in jail and was constantly tortured for the crime he did not commit. 

In the last 8 years, my wife and I have been doing anything we possibly can in hope the court would review our son’s case and retrial according the rule of law as we believe my son was innocent. We sold everything we owned from our productive land – our means of living to a piece of land in the back of our home as well as took loans to pay for defend lawyers as well as our trips to the local and central government offices, courts, the parliament house to get attention from the authority about my son’s case. In the last eight years, we have sent thousands of the letters to the governments’ offices, both provincial and central governments as well as the President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam requesting to intervene. Despite thousands of letters, petition were sent to the authority, none was responded from the government.

My son was wrongly accused of murder a police major in Dinh Vu District, Hai Phong City on July 14, 2007 at 21:00 hours. However, at the time the homicide occurred, my son Nguyen Van Chuong was at Hamlet 1 Binh Dan Village, Kim Thanh, Hai Duong Province – our home village which was 40km away from the crime scene, visited friends and relatives as he normally did every weekend. There many alibis and witnesses are willing to prove my son’s where about at the time the homicide occurred.

Knowing his brother was innocent, my younger son, Nguyen Trong Doan, logged a petition to the police investigation office in Hai Duong city requesting the investigation office to look into his brother’s case. Instead of carefully investigating the homicide, Hai Duong police arrested my younger son, tortured, coerced him to sign a fabricated indictment for a crime of so-called accessories to murder then sentenced him 2 years in prison.

In a heartfelt letter addressed to his mother, our son, Nguyen Van Chuong, had detailed how he was constantly tortured by the homicide police during the investigation. They used most inhumane, heinous, brutal methods to force him to confess the crime. When our son maintained his innocence, homicide police threatened him to beat his pregnant wife up and kill his unborn child if he refused to sign the confession. Could not endure the brutal, heinous tortures and in order to save his wife and his unborn child and to end his nightmare, our son had no choice but to sign the confession wrote up by police with their version of events, hoping that, when he was in-court he could present his case with the judge to prove his innocent. Unfortunately, in court, the judge and prosecutors did not accept factual evidences provided by witnesses and went ahead to sentence my innocent son to death penalty regardless.

On 06/10/2014, two court officers went to Tran Phu prison, Hai Phong City and notified our son, Nguyen Van Chuong, that the case has been finalised by the court and the death penalty will be implemented at the end of December 2014.

On 21/10/2014, two officers from Hai Phong City’s detention centre also announced that the death penalty will be implemented at the end of December 2014.

On 29/10/2014, two officers from Hai Phong City’s prosecutor office went to the prison and informed my son that the death penalty will be implemented at the end of December 2014.

On 26/10/2014, Huynh Tien Nam, a deputy commander from Binh Dan village police station together with two civilian clothes men went to our home to see us. One of the men was introduced as Nguyen Dang Linh and the other was introduced as Thanh, a police officer from Kim Thanh district, Hai Duong province. They informed us that the death penalty will be carried out on our son Nguyen Van Chuong at the end December 2014 and asked us if we had anything to say. We told them we strongly objected the death penalty imposed on our son and all we wanted was justice for our innocent son. In the last 8 years, we have continuously called on the authority, police, the court, crime investigation department, provincial and local governments to review our son’s case but none of these offices were bothered to look into it.

I have tried every humanly possible avenue in bid to save our innocent son from the death penalty. I again wrote a letter to the President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Truong Tan Sang, this time with my own blood. Like many letters I sent to him before, I have never received any response from our Head of State.

Early December 2014, we handed my petition about my son’s case to Mrs Le Thi Nga, deputy director of Vietnam Congress’ Justice Department, requested her to hand letter over to the president. However, until now I have not received any responded from the authority while the execution date is imminent. Nowhere to turn, my wife and I chose the “sitting and silent” protest as a last resort at the front of Ly Thai To park in Hanoi to let people who believe in justice know that our son was unjustly sentenced to death for the crime he did not commit

On December 17, while we were sitting in silent protest, security guards and secret police kept harassing us, threatened us if we did not move away from the area, we would be arrested and detained. One thing we don’t understand that while foreign visitors were freely taking photos of us but our people were discriminately forbidden to take any pictures. They were chasing away and they even had their cameras and smart phones confiscated by security guards. When I told story about my son’s case, some older security guards seemed to have some sympathy for us but the younger ones appeared to be heartless, pretended to be dumb and deaf despite we emotionally appealed them to let us stay. With their strengths and numbers, they heavy-handedly pushed and chased us away. Despite being constantly harassed and driven away, we kept coming back and continued to silently protest as our son’s life is at stake.

Many passers-by who expressed their empathy towards our son’s case have touched our hearts and we are thankful for that. During lunch time, there was a young girl who brought us some breads and water, emotionally told us in tears: “Uncle, this is what I could only do for you”. We were grateful for her kindness and asked her to share the news in the social networks to save our son from the unjust execution. In the morning of December 18, there was a young couple walking by, when the girl stopped to read the placard, her boyfriend quickly dragged her away saying “it is not our business”.

As we understand people are different and have different views about us, but we strongly believed that our son is innocent. He did not commit any crime and he does not deserve to die. We will do anything which is humanly possible to fight for our son’s justice and to DEMAND THE AUTHORITY TO OVERTURN NGUYEN VAN CHUONG’S DEATH PENALTY. We would like again to ask for your help by voicing your support and demand the Vietnamese Authority to immediately review our son’s case and to carry out thorough investigation, bring the culprits to justice as well as petition the Vietnamese Government to review its juridical system to ensure a fair, transparent and independent juridical system for all Vietnamese people. If Nguyen Van Chuong was unjustly executed for the crime he did not commit then there will be many people will die unjustly like him.

With Respect,