Lacking land for production, a family went to the forest to cut down trees for farming. When discovered, all five people were prosecuted in the forest destruction case. This seemingly rare story happened in the mountainous district of Muong Lat, becoming a valuable lesson for many people.
The story happened to the family of Mrs. Giang Thi So (57 years old) and her children. Mrs. So's family originally lived in a remote village of Muong Lat district. The family had 8 children, the oldest born in 1990, the youngest born in 2008. Her two oldest children, A Lenh (33 years old) and A Lung (24 years old), had their own families but lived in the same village. The large family, like many other households in this mountainous district, still had many difficulties and shortages in life.
One afternoon in January 2022, Mrs. So's eldest daughter-in-law, Vang (32 years old, wife of A Lenh), came to her mother-in-law's house to visit and met her mother-in-law and her second sister-in-law, Pa (21 years old, wife of A Lung) at home. In the small stilt house, the three of them sat and chatted. The story of the daughters-in-law in the house mentioned the lack of land to grow corn and cassava. Mrs. So remembered the land she used to cultivate when she first moved to the village. 4 years ago, after being mobilized and propagandized, the family returned it to the Muong Lat District Forest Protection Management Board for management because it was forest land. Thinking of that, she immediately told her two daughters-in-law to go to that forest land to cut down trees and then use the land to grow corn and cassava, and later divide the harvest equally among themselves. Hearing what their mother-in-law said, the two daughters-in-law agreed and agreed that tomorrow they would go to that land together to cut down and clear forest trees. Ms. Pa quickly ran to several houses in the village to ask for help in cutting down trees. Vang also ran home to discuss with her husband, A Lenh, about clearing the forest. Knowing that the area was a forest managed by the Muong Lat Forest Protection Management Board, A Lenh hesitated for a moment but then agreed to go with his wife...
So the next day, Mrs. Lau, her sons, daughters-in-law and a group of villagers carried tools and went to area 7, sub-area 47 of the protective forest to cut down trees. After cutting for half a day, they were discovered by the authorities. The working group of the Muong Lat District Protective Forest Management Board asked everyone to stop and leave. However, the next day, because there was still a part of the forest area that had not been completely cut down, the two couples A Lenh and A Lung continued to go to the above area to clean up more.... The consequences of both clearings caused 6,959 m2 of protective forest with bamboo trees, reed trees and some small trees to be cut down. The actions of the 5 members of Mrs. Lau's family were prosecuted by the authorities for the crime of "Forest destruction" according to point c, clause 1, Article 243 of the 2015 Penal Code, amended and supplemented in 2017.
When assigned to defend defendants eligible for legal aid in a criminal case, the legal aid officer was quite surprised when all 5 people in a family (including the mother, 2 sons, 2 daughters-in-law) were prosecuted for the crime of forest destruction. The defendants, the people with rights and obligations related to the case, are all ethnic minorities who cannot speak the common language. They have lived all their lives next to the forest in a particularly difficult area. Although they have been informed about the policy of protecting and developing upstream forests and protective forests, due to inadequate awareness and in order to have land for cultivation to serve their living needs, they have arbitrarily cleared land for cultivation right in the protective forests, leading to criminal acts.
This is a complicated case, involving many people, affecting the security and political situation in the area. Most of the defendants are illiterate and cannot speak the common language, so the assistance process encountered many difficulties. However, with the support and facilitation of the local authorities, especially prestigious people who are Mong people working in the locality, TGVPL exchanged and understood the wishes of the subjects being TGVPL, explaining to them the legal provisions related to the case. Through the interpretation of prestigious people in the locality, they realized that their actions were against the law, expressed remorse and were willing to remedy the damage they had caused, hoping for a lighter sentence.
The first instance trial of the case took place in January 2023 with the attention of many people. From the details of the case, TGVPL analyzed the difficult and sympathetic circumstances of the defendants. They are all honest citizens with no criminal record. The motive and purpose of the crime ultimately stemmed from the need to have land for cultivation with the desire to escape poverty. However, due to lack of understanding of the law, the crime was committed and brought to trial. TGVPL proposed to consider suspending the defendants and setting a probation period. The analysis, comments and mitigating circumstances that TGVPL presented at the trial were acknowledged by the Trial Panel. After objectively and fairly considering the entire content of the case, the 5 defendants were sentenced to 20 to 24 months in prison, suspended.
The end of the trial left many echoes. Mrs. Lau and her four children realized that their actions were against the law; the local people once again grasped and raised their awareness of the law on protecting protective forests, avoiding the repetition of the act of "forest destruction". From this case, perhaps local authorities at all levels need to review and re-evaluate the allocation of production land funds, creating livelihoods for people in mountainous districts.
(The name of the subject has been changed by TGPL).
TGVPL Nguyen Ngoc Khang
(Branch No. 1, Provincial State Legal Aid Center)
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