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| Đặng Thế Vinh, former head of the Bắc Giang People’s Procuracy Division 10 at the Bắc Giang Province People’s Court. — Photo thanhnien.vn |
BẮC GIANG – Two officials responsible for Nguyễn Thanh Chấn’s wrongful 10-year prison term will spend eight and 12 months behind bars for their negligence in the case.
Delivering its conviction after a two-day trial yesterday, Bắc Giang Province People’s Court found that Đặng Thế Vinh, former head of the Bắc Giang People’s Procuracy Division 10, and Trần Nhật Luật, former police chief of the Việt Yên District, acted “short of responsibility causing serious consequences”.
Luật, who investigated a murder in Việt Yên’s Me Village on April 15, 2003 in which Chấn was the main suspect and was later wrongfully convicted of the crime, received a 12-month sentence while Vinh got eight months.
According to testimonies from police officers from Bắc Giang police’s Criminalistics Division, they found footprints from the alleged murderer that did not match Chấn’s, informed the investigation team, and verbally informed Luật in person.
Luật did not seek an official reassessment of the forensic results and was charged with “not fulfilling his responsibility in collecting evidences” to prove Chấn guilty or not.
Luật, however, denied being informed of the forensic results.
Vinh, meanwhile, was said to have left two interrogation documents out of the case file in which Chấn claimed his innocence and denounced investigators for extortion and torture, according to the court.
The wrongful murder case of Nguyễn Thanh Chấn was brought to light in 2014, only after he had served 10 years out of the life sentence he received in 2004.
The Hà Nội Supreme People’s Court had to issue a formal apology to the man who was later compensated a record amount of VNĐ7.2 billion (US$320,000) for the decade-long miscarriage of justice. — VNS
