The Bình Thuận Police, in co-ordination with the Sóc Trăng Police, on July 10 transferred a 49-year-old man to southern province of Bình Thuận for further investigation after he escaped 21 years ago.

Nguyễn Huy Cường in 1988 was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment for robbery.

While being kept at the prison, Cường made friend with Nguyễn Văn Hên, from the southern province of Sóc Trăng. Cường and Hên escaped from the prison and then used guns to rob from a number of local residents.

Cường was caught again and sentenced to seven more years of imprisonment.

In 1995 he once again escaped from prison.

Cường went to the southern province of Sóc Trăng and changed his name to Nguyễn Hùng and then Nguyễn Trường Giang and continued to conduct robberies.

In 1997 the Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Police asked the public for information about a victim of a murder. The victim had the same name and characteristics as Cường, so everyone believed that Cường had died. His family set up an altar for him and held a death anniversary for him each year.

But this year, after a long investigation, the Sóc Trăng Police discovered that Nguyễn Hùng was Nguyễn Huy Cường.

Cường proved to be quite intelligent to have run away for such a long time, but in the end, he could not escape the police and the law. If only he completed his sentence from the start, he wouldn’t have wasted so much time. — VNS