COMMUNIST VIETNAM INTERNATIONAL CRIME
SRVN The Case of Dong Tam
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World
Vietnam sentences brothers to death after violent land clash
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| Twenty-seven others were handed varying sentences, from a 15-month suspended sentence to life in prison |
A Vietnam court sentenced two brothers to death Monday after a long-running land dispute spiralled into rare violence which left three police officers and a villager dead.
Residents of Dong Tam commune in a Hanoi suburb have for years clashed with authorities, accusing the military of illegally seizing their farmland for an airport.
In January officials attempted to erect a perimeter fence, but were met with villagers armed with "grenades, petrol bombs and knives", according to the Ministry of Public Security.
The clash left three police officers and an elderly resident, Le Dinh Kinh, dead.
Villagers have a different account of the incident, accusing authorities of attacking Kinh in his sleep. He was believed to be the leader of the farmers' resistance.
Kinh's two sons -- Le Dinh Chuc, 40, and Le Dinh Cong, 56 -- were among dozens arrested in the aftermath of the violence.
The Hanoi court sentenced the brothers "to death for murder" of the three police officers, according to state media.
Twenty-seven others were handed varying sentences, from a 15-month suspended sentence to life in prison.
Defence lawyer Le Luan called the trial "unfair", and said the defence team had proposed it be postponed pending further investigation into the incident.
"We do not agree with the verdict given by the court today; we don't even agree with the trial itself," he told AFP.
Human Rights Watch decried the "heavy sentences" coming after a "rushed" trial, which started last week.
"This trial was plagued by serious procedural concerns that clearly undermined any possibility of fair process," said HRW's Phil Robertson.
It is difficult to verify the authorities' version of events, as the communist country strictly controls all media and information dissemination.
Land disputes are common in Vietnam, where powerful individuals and companies often make claims on property.
Freedom of expression is restricted, as is the right to protest, but flashpoints occur.
In 2017, the Dong Tam villagers held more than a dozen police officers and officials hostage for several days at the airport site in a standoff that gripped the tightly-controlled country.
bur/dhc/rma
World
Vietnam court sentences 2 to death over land dispute clash
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A Vietnamese court on Monday sentenced two villagers to death in the killings of three policemen during a clash over a land dispute, state media reported. Twenty-seven other villagers received sentences of up to life imprisonment.
The newspaper Vietnam News said half brothers Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc received the death sentences for their roles in burning the three policemen to death in the village in a suburb of Hanoi in January.
The 84-year-old father of the two men, village elder Le Dinh Kinh, was fatally shot during the violence, it said.
The newspaper said four other defendants were also charged with murder. Of them, Cong’s son, Le Dinh Doanh, was sentenced to life imprisonment while three others were given jail terms ranging from 12 to 16 years, Vietnam News said.
The defendants were accused of killing the three policemen using grenades, firebombs and spears as the authorities advanced on the village in Dong Tam commune. The police were trying to stop the villagers from blocking the building of a wall around a military airport on land they said belonged to the village.
The newspaper quoted the judge as saying in the verdict that the assailants carried out the murders in a brutal way and used methods for mass killing.
The 23 other defendants were accused of “opposing those who are on public duties" and received sentences ranging from 15 months to six years, the newspaper said.
Land disputes are common in Vietnam because the government does not recognize private land ownership. Land can be taken for infrastructure and investment projects, and disagreements over compensation often lead to prolonged disputes.
“The heavy sentences against the Dong Tam defendants, including the death sentence against two persons, come as no surprise,” said Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“Vietnam’s rulers are bending over backwards to show their toughest possible face against the Dong Tam villagers because they worry this community’s defiance could be contagious unless the defendants are hit with the most severe penalties,” Robertson said.
A court in Vietnam has sentenced two brothers to death for their role in the killing of three policemen in a notorious land dispute in January.
The other 27 people on trial were given sentences ranging from life imprisonment to 15 months suspended.
Le Dinh Cong and his younger brother Le Dinh Chuc helped mastermind resistance against the police, the court ruled.
Their father, retired local official Le Dinh Kinh, 84, was shot dead by police who had entered Dong Tam village.
The authorities had been trying to secure construction of a fence around land officials were trying to seize next to an airfield.
The raid and the unexplained circumstances around the death of the popular local leader caused huge public controversy. Land disputes are common in Vietnam, but rarely escalate into such conflict.
The two death sentences and long prison terms have been interpreted by many as a warning by the government against resisting seizures of private land, said Tina Thanh-Ha Vu of the BBC's Vietnamese service.
One defendant, Le Dinh Doanh, received a life sentence, several received sentences of between 12 and 15 years, and others lesser prison terms.
The defence counsel protested that the time allotted to them in court to make their case had been significantly shortened.
What happened in Dong Tam?
Police arrived in the village in January to help secure land seized by the defence ministry around the Mieu Mon airport, close to Dong Tam, as the army built a boundary fence.
The land was already subject to a dispute with villagers, who said they had not been properly recompensed for its seizure.
According to authorities, a group of residents led by Le Dinh Kinh violently resisted the police, and three officers - Col Nguyen Huy Thinh, Cpt Pham Cong Huy and Lt Duong Duc Hoang Quan - were set on fire and burned to death.
Vietnam Indicts 25 Dong Tam Protesters on Murder-Related Charges
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| Village leader Le Dinh Kinh's body is shown (L) bearing bruises next to a photo of Hanoi police deployed at Dong Tam commune on Jan. 9, 2020. |
Authorities in Vietnam indicted 25 people on murder-related charges for their involvement in a deadly clash over land rights that left three police officers and a protest leader dead, in January at the Dong Tam commune outside Hanoi.
Dong Tam village elder Le Dinh Kinh, 84, was shot and killed by police during the Jan. 9 raid on the village by 3,000 security officers intervening in a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of the capital.
The Hanoi People’s Procuracy on Thursday released the indictments after a 20-day investigation, according to state media, accusing the slain man’s son Le Dinh Chuc, and grandsons Le Dinh Doanh and Le Dinh Uy of murder, with 22 more charged as being accomplices to murder.
In addition to Le Dinh Kinh, three police officers died in the police raid at Dong Tam in January.
If convicted they could face a minimum of 12 years or be given the death penalty.
Four others from the village were accused of obstructing officers in the performance of their duty, a charge which carries a jail sentence of between two and seven years.
Police said that the trial will begin soon due to the importance of the case.
Though official reports said that villagers had assaulted police with grenades and petrol bombs in the early morning raid, a report drawn from witness accounts and released seven days later by journalists and activists said that police had attacked first during the deadly clash.
Police blocked off pathways and alleys during the attack and beat villagers “indiscriminately, including women and old people,” the report said, calling the assault “possibly the bloodiest land dispute in Vietnam in the last ten years.”
In an earlier flare up of the dispute that goes back to 1980, farmers detained 38 police officers and local officials during a weeklong standoff in April 2017.
In July 2017, the Hanoi Inspectorate announced that after conducting a “comprehensive inspection,” it had determined that the site belongs to the military.
The inspectorate rejected the farmer’s claims that 47 hectares (116 acres) of their farmland was seized for the military-run Viettel Group—the country’s largest mobile phone operator—without adequately compensating them.
It acknowledged that the military had “made several mistakes in management” of the land, including allowing area residents to use it after a rental contract expired in 2012 and failing to relocate certain households before 1980, leading to illegal encroachment and construction.
While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
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Vietnam Arrests Four For Sharing Info on Dong Tam Police Raid
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| A gate at the Dong Tam commune outside Hanoi is shown in an April 21, 2017 photo.
Reuters
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