Tortured programmer for 4 months to force him to make an online gambling game

On the afternoon of August 17, Vuong Van Kiem, 32 years old, residing in Hai Duong province, was sentenced by the Hanoi People's Court to 14 years in prison for intentionally causing injury, 10 years in prison for illegally arresting and detaining people, a total sentence of 24 years in prison.

Kiem's ​​two accomplices, Pham Van Huan, 33 years old, and Ly Van Hoang, 32 years old, were sentenced to 22 and 12 years in prison, respectively.

The jury assessed the defendants' crimes as "barbaric, brutal, inhumane and unacceptable hooliganism". Kiem had been administratively punished twice for gambling and intentionally damaging property. Huan had five previous convictions for theft and human trafficking, and had been administratively punished twice for gambling and illegal drug use.

The indictment determined that Mr. Fang Lijing, 46 years old, Chinese nationality, worked as an online game software writer. At the end of 2019, he entered Vietnam to find a partner to develop the market. Mr. Fang agreed to program online games for Hoang Thanh Son (residing in Da Nang) with a salary of 20% of the profit.

At the end of 2021, Son asked Fang to program an online gambling game, but he could not do it. On March 13, Fang was forced into a car by Son, Kiem, and Huan and taken to a rented apartment in Thanh Ha urban area, Thanh Oai district.

The prosecutor accused Huan and Kiem of continuously torturing Mr. Fang with "barbaric, medieval, inhumane" methods, such as beating, slashing the soles of his feet, applying electric batons, breaking 14 teeth... with the purpose of forcing him to program gambling software.

On June 24, Kiem hired Hoang to help with daily living, cooking, and torture. During the crime, the three defendants turned on loud music to avoid suspicion from people around them due to Fang's loud shouting.

After 4 months of committing the crime, on July 14, the group's actions were discovered. Mr. Fang suffered 88% health damage.

At today's trial, Kiem testified that he was hired by a Chinese man named A Tieu to do this job. Kiem met Tieu at the Mong Cai border gate and was asked to look after Mr. Fang for "something".

Kiem said that Tieu asked a motorbike taxi driver to bring him money three times, each time 50 million VND to pay his salary, living expenses, and rent. Kiem did not know Chinese, so he only communicated with Tieu and the victim through translation software.

"Tieu said he would beat me if I couldn't do something, but I didn't know what it was. I only beat him when Tieu told me to," the defendant testified. Every time Tieu tortured Mr. Fang, he had the help of two accomplices.

Judge Tran Nam Ha said that Kiem was the only one who mentioned A Tieu, the other two defendants did not know this person, but only knew Son. "So is Son the A Tieu that the defendant said? Are you sure that your statement is correct?" Kiem did not answer.

Showing many photos of the victim being taken to the emergency room and asking the defendants to look back at the consequences of their actions, the judge said: "Do we have to do that to each other?". Kiem replied: "I didn't intend to do it, but A Tieu transferred more money, so I did it again."

"The defendant said he did it because he was paid. Have you thought about how he would feel if someone else also used the excuse of being paid to torture him like that?" the judge continued to ask. Kiem replied, "It would hurt."

Kiem's ​​two accomplices admitted to the act, saying they did not know Mr. Fang and were paid by Son and Kiem to do it.

Hoang said he was an unemployed taxi driver and accepted the offer when Kiem invited him, even though he didn't know what the job was. When he arrived at the apartment, Hoang said he saw a foreigner locked in the room.

The defendant was promised 7 million VND a month by Kiem to clean the house, go to the market, cook, do laundry... but was only given 500,000 VND in advance when he was arrested. Hoang said he did not know why Kiem detained him, only that it was because Mr. Fang owed him money. "The defendant only planned to work for a month and then stopped. The defendant found it very brutal," he said.

Authorities said they have separated the case related to Son for separate investigation and handling because he is on the run.

According to VnExpress