Nguyễn Văn Tình. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Senior lieutenant-general Tô Lâm, a member of the Poliburo and Minister of Public Security, on Sunday sent a letter praising various police offices for capturing two death-row prisoners who escaped a prison in Hà Nội seven days ago.

The police offices included the Police General Department, the Security General Department and the Hà Nội, Hòa Bình, Sơn La, Quảng Ninh and Hải Dương Police.

The prisoners, Lê Văn Thọ and Nguyễn Văn Tình, had been held in the same cell at the T16 detention centre in Hà Nội’s Thanh Oai District while awaiting execution.

Thọ was arrested at about 5pm on Saturday near a market in Hải Dương Province’s Nam Sách District.

Plain-clothes police officers reportedly ambushed a taxi that Thọ was in, dragged him out of the vehicle and handcuffed and blindfolded him before taking him away in a black car.

Tình was arrested at about 1.15am on Sunday while hiding in a cave in Hòa Bình Province’s Mai Châu District.

Despite Tình’s resistance, he was put under control by officers and escorted to the Ministry of Public Security’s T16 detention centre.

Tình, 28, was sentenced to death by the Hà Nội People’s Court in April for his involvement in a narcotics ring.

Thọ, 37, received the death penalty in May when the Hà Nam Province People’s Court found him guilty of dealing in narcotics, murder and theft. His past convictions included murder, kidnapping, illegal use of firearms, bribery, robbery and theft.

Initial investigations showed that the two prisoners broke their shackles while correctional officers were not paying attention, and tunneled their way out of the cell at midnight last Sunday. — VNS