Trial begins for policemen murder case in Dong Tam

The Hanoi People’s Court on September 7 opened the first-instance trial for 29 people involved in the murder of three policemen in Dong Tam commune of the city’s My Duc district.

Representatives of the People’s Committee of Dong Tam commune, the People’s Committee of My Duc district, and families of the victims, were present at the trial.

A total of 33 lawyers defending the accused, and three others representing the victims’ families appeared at the court.

All the defendants are residents of Hoanh and Dong Mit hamlets in Dong Tam commune. Among them, 25 face the charge of “murder” under Article 123 of the 2015 Penal Code, while the four remainders are accused of “resisting on-duty officers” in pursuant to Article 330 of the code.

According to the procuracy’s indictment, despite being well aware that the land at the Senh field of Dong Tam commune was used for defence purpose under the management of the Defence Ministry as confirmed by the Hanoi Inspectorate and the Government Inspectorate, in 2013, Le Dinh Kinh (born in 1936, a resident in Hoanh hamlet) and some others set up a so-called “group of consensus” with the aim of re-occupying and dividing the land lot among themselves.

They frequently incited locals to file complaints about the Dong Tam administration’s land management and use, used social networks to spread the false information that the Senh field belongs to Dong Tam commune and called on local people to “struggle to keep the land”.

In late 2019 and early 2020, upon learning that the Hanoi Department of Public Security coordinated with the air defence – air force service of the Defence Ministry to deploy personnel to protect the force building fencing walls around the Mieu Mon airfield on the Senh field, Kinh and his accomplices bought weapons with the aim of attacking the authorised force.

In the early hours on January 9, 2020, when the police arrived at the gate of Hoanh hamlet, about 50m from Kinh’s house,  the group used hand-made weapons to attack the police force, causing three police officers to fall into a pit near Kinh’s house. Le Dinh Chuc and Le Dinh Doanh poured gasoline into the pit and set fire, killing the three policemen.

At the same time, the authorised force found Kinh holding a grenade and calling on others to resist, so they decided to shoot him dead.

 Investigation results show that Le Dinh Kinh and four others were the masterminds, who both directed others to commit and directly engaged in the murder of the policemen.

 However, as Kinh had died, he was not included in the case.

Also in the morning of January 9, when the police was conducting their mission at the junior high school and the fish pond in Dong Tam, three suspects attacked them with knives. After they were arrested by the police, two other women also attacked the police with knives and stones. The women managed to fled but later handed themselves in.

The trial is scheduled to last for 10 days.