A former soldier in Huong Khe district in Vietnam’s central province of Ha Tinh said that he was beaten by police in Dien My commune in 2015, then wrongly sentenced to prison, and his family has been discriminated against ever since.
Nguyen Dinh Hung, born in 1976, served two years of military service in the 10th Division in Kon Tum in 1997, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that his family is now being discriminated against by the authorities in his village and commune they do not allow his family from enjoying local benefits.
“They didn’t say it directly, but they banned all the people from visiting us. They do not permit us of receiving social support for the poor. When our region is hit by typhoons, local people receive a lot of financial and food aid but our family receives any.”
Mr. Hung said that in September 2015, Mr. Hung’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Tran Thi Nhan, rode a motorbike to sell seafood, and the police in the Phuong My commune (later renamed Dien My) then illegally set up roadblocks to check to move of local people.
The commune police then seized Ms. Nhan’s motorbike with seafood for no reason and brought it to the communal police station where they then destroyed the goods and kept the bike, which has yet to be returned to the family.
Mr. Hung’s brother, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hai, objected to the commune police’s seizure of the vehicle and destruction of goods, as well as interrogating his sister-in-law, causing the then Chief of the Commune Police, Mr. Ho Xuan Que, to declare that he would “punish” Mr. Hung even though he was not involved in this case.
On October 21, 2015, Mr. Hung was driving a motorbike without a helmet when Mr. Que hit his hand with a stick, making him almost fall.
When he stopped his bike and turned back to question why he had been beaten, Mr. Que hit him with a stick many times and used a helmet to hit him several times in the stomach. The head of the commune police also insulted and threatened to kill the whole family of Mr. Hung.
Mr. Hung said that because his hand was bruised, he had to go to the hospital for treatment for exactly one week.
Half a month after being discharged home, in mid-November 2015, he was arrested by the Huong Khe district police on charges of “resisting on-duty state official ” and detained for two months. However, he was released on bail by his family after a month and 18 days in detention.
At the end of February 2016, Mr. Hung was convicted by the Huong Khe district court and sentenced to six months in prison even though his lawyer proved his conviction was incorrect and showed signs of a wrongful conviction because Mr. Ho Xuan Que and Phuong My commune police did not have the authority to set up checkpoints to patrol and control traffic as well as have no written consent from the District Police, according to the provisions of Decree 27 of the Government in 2010.
Lao Dong Newspaper on December 23, 2016, reported on Mr. Hung’s case with the title “Are their signs of injustice in a judgment in resisting on-duty state official case?” quoted a lawyer who questioned the legitimacy of setting up traffic checkpoints of Phuong My commune police and Ho Xuan Que- the commune police chief.
Mr. Hung’s team of lawyers doubted that the communal police had legalized the file when, in the previous first-instance trial, Mr. Que admitted that the setting up of the checkpoint was not according to the plan of the district police, saying that only the plan of the communal authorities.
The case file did not have written consent from the Huong Son district police for this commune police to set up a patrol mission.
However, at the appeal hearing (2016), the victim (Mr. Ho Xuan Que) changed his testimony, affirming that he had performed the tasks approved by the District Police and presented a plan for patrolling and controlling traffic approved by Huong Khe District Police.
Mr. Hung appealed to the Ha Tinh Provincial Court, which transferred the file to the district authorities for re-investigation, and in the second first instance hearing in October 2017, he was still found guilty by the District Court with the sentence remains the same (six months) but was given a suspended sentence.
Mr. Hung continued to appeal and in the second appeal session in mid-March 2018, the Ha Tinh Provincial Court upheld the suspension sentence.
Mr. Hung told RFA that during the hearings, he accused an investigator named Phong of the Huong Khe district police of forcing him to admit to fighting with Mr. Que, but in reality, only Mr. Que beat him.
Mr. Hung said he did not accept the verdict and sent petitions to many agencies from the commune to the central level, including the Supreme People’s Court, asking for a fair hearing.
Mr. Hung said that after many times of submitting petitions to the Supreme People’s Court, this agency 2019 had written notice of receipt of his application. However, since then, he has not seen any movement.
Mr. Hung, who is currently working in agriculture, said that his family is now facing many difficulties. Besides not being able to enjoy local benefits, he was also not allowed to do business even though he had served in the military.
He said the local authorities didn’t even like him because he denounced them for a number of wrongdoings.
“The local officials have done so much wrong, the corruption is so great, and I denounced them many things, so they hate me too. However, they can’t do anything to me because I report the truth.”
According to him, the commune authorities have made many mistakes in implementing policies on people infected with Agent Orange and war-injured soldiers as well as personalizing public forests and land.
He himself is a retired soldier, but the commune government rejected his request for a small contract of land for production to support his family.
He said the person who beat him, Mr. Ho Xuan Que had retired and moved to the Southern region to live.
We called the Chief of Police of Dien My Commune, the Police of Huong Khe District, the Chairman of the People’s Committee, and the spokesman of the district as well as the Ha Tinh Provincial Court, but no one answered the phone.
Mr. Tran Tuan Anh, Chief of the Office of the People’s Council and People’s Committee of Huong Khe District, the focal point to advise on the work of speaking and providing information to the press, hung up after hearing the reporter introduce himself.
We have emailed Mr. Ngo Xuan Ninh District Chairman but have not received a response.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
