Chaos occurred yesterday at a public meeting of apology held by the People’s Court of Hanoi to Mr. Han Duc Long who had been imprisoned for 11 years and four times sentenced to death.
The public apology document was read by a representative of the senior People’s Court of Hanoi at the People’s Committee headquarters in Phuc Son commune, Tan Yen district, the northern province of Bac Giang.
However the meeting did not take place as expected as relatives of a five year old girl who was raped and killed in June 2005 gathered, screamed, devastated banners and demanded to cancel the public apology.
They caused the chaos, making attendees could not hear the apology’s reading, because the real murderer of the case has not been found, quoted Thanh Nien newspaper.
According to the case record, people in Phuc Son commune spotted the dead body of Nguyen Thi Yen at the end of June 2005 who went missing previously.
After four months of investigation but failing to find culprit, the Police Department of Bac Giang province decided to suspend the case and mobilized local residents to denounce those used to take liberties with or raping local women.
Because of land dispute, local woman Ngo Thi Khuyen and daughter Truong Thi Nam wrote a denunciation saying Mr. Long used to rape them and he was the culprit of the Yen murder in October, the same year.
After receiving the letter of denunciation, the Investigation Agency of the Bac Giang province Police Department arrested Mr. Long for investigation.
Experiencing four courts from 2007-2011, Mr. Long was accused of child rape and murder and sentenced to death by the provincial People’s Court and the Supreme People’ Court.
At the hearings, Mr. Long kept claiming innocence, saying that he was tortured and pleaded guilty under duress.
In 2014, the jury board of the Supreme People’s Court reconsidered the case, set aside verdicts in the first instance and appeal courts to Mr. Long to reinvestigate.
Mr. Long was set free on December 20, 2016 because there is not enough evidences of accusations.
