Martial arts master sentenced to prison for organizing deadly drug addiction treatment at home

On April 27, Mr. Vinh, resident of Thanh Tri district, was sentenced for the crime of Accidentally killing someoneaccording to Article 128 of the Penal Code, the sentence increased by 16 months compared to the first-instance judgment.

The appellate trial was opened on the basis of the defendant Vinh’s appeal to reduce the punishment. The victim’s family also filed an appeal, asking to cancel the first-instance judgment, requesting to change the crime to Killing.

The first-instance judgment on November 19, 2021 of the People’s Court of Thanh Tri district determined that Mr. Vinh was a martial arts master, had no function of detoxification, but still opened a drug rehabilitation facility on the 3rd floor of his house, taking care of families. consider and manage people who self-medicate with drug addiction.

On July 4, 2019, Mr. Nguyen Van Hai, 22 years old, was brought to see Mr. Vinh by his parents. The two sides agree, Mr. Hai will stay at Mr. Vinh’s house for at least 3 months, starting from July 6, 2019, to be looked after and managed. Hai’s medicine was provided by his family, Mr. Vinh was not allowed to interfere. Hai’s parents have to pay Mr. Vinh 15 million VND per month.

The next night, 7/7/2019, Mr. Hai began to show signs of fatigue, vomiting, chest tightness, shortness of breath, not eating, so he asked Mr. Vinh to call a doctor. Thinking that Mr. Hai was against him, Mr. Vinh beat him with his feet and hands, grabbed Hai’s head by his hair, hit Hai’s head against the wall, chained Hai’s one leg.

The next morning, this martial artist knew that Mr. Hai continued to be tired, vomiting, chest tightness, shortness of breath and defecation, but did not take him to treatment. Around 3:45 p.m. on the same day, after taking a bath, Mr. Hai twitched his limbs, talking nonsense. Vinh was taken to the hospital at that time, but the victim died on the way. The cause of death was determined “asphyxiation due to regurgitation of food”.

During the investigation, defendant Vinh admitted that he did not have a license to practice drug addiction treatment, only taking care of patients with his own experience.

At the appeal hearing, Mr. Vinh admitted to hitting the victim, but the bruises may have been caused by a collision. The lawyer for the victim’s family and the representative of the Hanoi People’s Procuracy both requested the jury to cancel the first-instance judgment to re-investigate.

The appellate panel found that the crime in the first-instance judgment was well-founded, and there was no evidence to show signs of crime. Killing. Therefore, the Appellate Court only partially accepted the appeal of the victim’s family, increasing the prison sentence for the defendant.

Hai Thu