Police are mobilised to Đồng Tâm Commune to maintain security on January 9, 2020. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội People’s Procuracy on Thursday prosecuted 29 people for allegedly killing three policemen in Đồng Tâm Commune of the city’s Mỹ Đức district in a violent incident earlier this year.

All the prosecuted persons are residents of Hoành and Đồng Mít hamlets of Đồng Tâm. Among them, 25 face murder charges while the four others are accused of resisting on-duty officers.

According to the procuracy’s indictment, despite being aware that the land lot at the Sềnh field of Đồng Tâm Commune is used for defence purposes as confirmed by the Hà Nội Inspectorate and the Government Inspectorate, in 2013, Lê Đình Kình (born in 1963, a resident in Hoành hamlet) and others set up a so-called “group of consensus” with the aim of re-occupying and dividing the land lot among themselves.

They allegedly frequently incited locals to file complaints about the land management and use by the Đồng Tâm administration, used social networks to spread false information that Senh field belongs to Đồng Tâm Commune, and called on local people to “struggle to keep the land”.

From 2017 to 2020, Kình reportedly directed the “group of consensus” and many other people to cause a number of disturbances.

Upon learning the Hà Nội Department of Public Security co-ordinated with the air defence – air force service of the Ministry of National Defence to deploy personnel to protect the force building fencing walls around the Miếu Môn airfield on Sềnh field, Kình and his accomplices reportedly bought weapons with the aim of attacking the authorised forces.

In January 2020, learning that the police were about to come to Đồng Tâm, Kình and many others allegedly gathered at his house on January 6, 7 and 8 to plot a fight against the police.

When the police arrived at Hoành village in the early morning on January 9, the group allegedly used handmade weapons to attack police. Although the authorised force used loudspeakers to repeatedly ask them to stop such acts, the rioters refused and resisted even more fiercely, with some allegedly throwing grenades at police.

While moving to arrest rioters, three police officers fell into a pit near Kình’s house. Some of the rioters allegedly poured gasoline into the pit and set it alight, killing the three policemen.

As the authorised forces broke into the house and found Kinh holding a grenade and calling on others to resist, they decided to shoot him dead, according to police.

Investigation results show indicate that Lê Đình Kình and four others were the masterminds, who both directed others to commit and directly engaged in the murder of the policemen. — VNS