At an appeal hearing yesterday, the Supreme People’s Court in Quang Ninh Province sentenced 33-year-old Nguyen Tien Phuong to death for instigating the killing of two men and destroying their bodies in China.

The three defendants at the appeal hearing in Quang Ninh Province yesterday Photo: Nhan Dan

Phuong’s two accomplices, Nguyen Tien Chung, 49, and Bui Hai Bai, 48, received a life sentence and a 20-year sentence respectively.

Phuong was the director of Quang Phat Co Ltd in Quang Ninh but he was also well known in the underground world in the province.

The two victims are Le Minh Diep, of Quang Ninh, and Nguyen Minh Tri, a native of Hai Phong City.

According to the indictment, in late May 2000, Phuong’s company and Hong Kong Co., Ltd had conflicts in their competition in exporting goods to China.

Phuong then asked Chung, his younger brother, and Bai, his employee, to capture and beat Le Van Diep and Nguyen Minh Tri, two export executives of Hong Kong.

The attackers then took Tri and Diep to the Shiwan Dashan Mountain area in China’s Guangxi province, where they continued to brutalize the two men to death.

Chung later hired a group of Chinese people to destroy the victim’s bodies for 20,000 yuan, but locals in the mountainous area later discovered the bodies.

After being informed about the case, the Quang Ninh province police launched an investigation and later seized Chung and Bai first and then Phuong.

At the trial in August 2010, the provincial People’s Court sentenced Phuong and Chung to death while Bai was given a life sentence.

But the three appealed the verdicts and at the appeal hearing in January 2011, all the three saw their verdicts reduced, with Chung receiving life imprisonment and Phuong and Bai getting 20 years and 15 years in jail respectively.

However, in December 2011 the Supreme People’s Court canceled these sentences and requested that the case be re-tried.

Source: Tuoi Tre News