Proposal to sentence defendant to 4-5 years in prison in case of 8th grade male student beaten to death in Hanoi

On the morning of December 17, at the trial of defendant Truong Van Minh (born in 2008, in Viet Hung, Long Bien) for the crime of “Intentionally causing injury”, the representative of the Procuracy proposed to sentence the defendant to 4-5 years in prison. The victim in the case was Nguyen Hoang Dat, an 8th grade male student, who was beaten brain dead and died.

Previously, in response to the interrogation of the Trial Council, Mr. Truong Van Tam (born in 1979), the defendant's father, gave a statement that matched the content of the indictment. According to Mr. Tam's statement, when he learned that his two children went to Le Mat communal house to resolve the conflict, he chased after them and took them to the communal house. On the way, Mr. Tam asked about the incident and thought that the children were just joking, so he told his children to go play with their grandfather (who was at the communal house). Mr. Tam returned but felt uneasy so he turned back and saw his children beating their friend, so he ran to stop them.

When asked by the Trial Council why he did not take any measures to intervene and instead left immediately, Mr. Tam burst into tears, saying that he was too subjective and did not fully assess the situation. "This incident was partly my fault, knowing there was a conflict but not intervening. If I had told my child to stay home at that time... I could not have foreseen the incident, causing suffering to his family and his mother," Mr. Tam's testimony said.

Mr. Tam cried and bowed deeply to apologize to the victim's mother: "I'm sorry. I don't know what to say other than sorry to you and sorry to the family."

The defendant Minh's younger brother, Truong Van Khang, when asked by the Trial Panel about the origin of the conflict with the victim, said that while he was jogging in the yard, a man (the victim Dat) came and told him to beat up another friend, but Khang refused, so Dat sat on him and slapped him in the face.

In court, the victim’s mother said that when she received the phone call, she went to the hospital and found her child unconscious. According to the mother, after committing the crime, the defendant texted his friends with a boastful attitude, without remorse. “There are many adults in the defendant’s family, but when the child died, no one came to light incense for him. I find that kind of behavior inhumane and cold-blooded,” said the victim’s mother.

The victim's mother requested the Trial Panel to resolve the case according to the law. She requested the Trial Panel to change the defendant's charge from intentional injury to murder and prosecute Mr. Tam as an accomplice.

According to Mr. Tam's testimony, right after taking Dat to the hospital, he went home to prepare money and stayed at the hospital all night.

According to Mr. Tam, when Dat was in the hospital, he was there almost the entire time. Only when Dat's mother filed a complaint with the police, Mr. Tam and his two children had to go to the police station to give statements and set up a crime scene, so they could not go to the hospital.

According to Mr. Tam, during Dat's hospitalization, he gave money for hospital fees and many times gave money to Dat's mother, a total of 100 million VND.

At the trial, the victim’s family requested compensation of more than 1.2 billion VND, including hospital fees, care costs, lost wages, and mental damage. Regarding this damage, Mr. Tam said it was too much money for his family. He asked the Trial Panel to consider the compensation level according to the law.