In early June, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court tried the case of Tr.Th.S. (59 years old) - a heartbreaking family feud stemming from a property dispute. Inside the courtroom, a somber atmosphere prevailed as the deceased lay buried deep in the cold earth, while the living trembled before the witness stand. Was that plot of land worth a human life, and could any verdict alleviate the pangs of conscience when brotherly love has been shattered?
A piece of land and deep affection
Tragedy doesn't arise spontaneously; it's nurtured by months of accumulated deadlock. The S. family has four brothers. After dividing the ancestral land, life inadvertently thrust them into a cruel and ironic predicament. S.'s plot is at the back, while his younger brother N.'s plot is right at the front, blocking access to the main road.
On several occasions, the older brother approached his younger brother, offering to buy a small portion of the land to widen the path, creating a more convenient route. But S.'s hopes were met only with a摇头 (shaking of the head) and refusal from his younger brother. Time and again, these rejections piled up. Through the lens of envy and the accumulated resentment of daily life, it transformed into a smoldering tumor in the older brother's heart.
On the morning of March 6, 2025, S. left home, carrying two knives in his waistband. Around 9:10 a.m., Provincial Road 10 was bustling with traffic. While N. was busy repairing his motorbike in front of his house, his brother arrived. S. approached him and continued to bring up the issue of opening the road. When he received another refusal, the evil spirit that had been residing within him after months of depression officially awakened.
S. drew a knife and inflicted the first four cuts on his younger brother's head. In shock and excruciating pain, N. clutched his head and ran away, screaming for help in desperation. But his cries for help were drowned out by selfishness. S. chased after him, and when his brother collapsed from exhaustion in front of a nearby house, S. continued to stab him repeatedly in the chest.
The forensic autopsy report revealed the brutality of the frenzied attack: multiple stab wounds piercing both lungs, severing the heart, and damaging the thoracic aorta. N. died instantly. In the pool of his younger brother's blood, S. came to his senses. This awakening was so horrific that he couldn't bear himself. S. chose death as his own judgment. He stabbed himself in the stomach with a knife, but the blade broke. Not stopping there, he rushed into a nearby restaurant, grabbed a pair of scissors, stabbed himself, then poured boiling water over himself and electrocuted himself until unconscious. This suicide attempt was the desperate scream of the remaining "human" part of him. He wanted to exchange life for life, to die with his brother. Ironically, the first person to discover S. in critical condition, alerting neighbors to take him to the hospital to save his life, was the victim's wife.
AI illustration: Y Linh
A mother's pain
At that trial, even without the elderly mother present, her pain was evident in every word of the defendant's testimony and in the choked sobs of those in attendance. She bore the greatest tragedy of her life: her eldest son murdering her youngest. Her absence wasn't just due to old age and frailty, but because she couldn't bear to see the son she had given birth to stand before the judge, receiving the verdict of justice for taking the life of another. She stayed home, in her empty house, weeping for both the dead and the living.
On the panel for the victims' legal representatives, the sister-in-law demanded compensation totaling over 2.5 billion VND, including funeral expenses and emotional distress. But what good is money when a family is shattered? Mr. N. is gone forever, leaving his young wife and two orphaned children alone in the world. S. is in prison, leaving his wife and children to endure humiliation and avoid the gaze of their neighbors because of their father's cruel actions. A few square meters of space exchanged for a human life and buried the future of two families.
The court determined that S.'s actions were particularly dangerous to society, depriving another person of their right to life, and were thuggish and despicable. The use of a knife capable of inflicting serious injury meant S. faced charges of "Illegal use of military weapons" under Article 304 of the Penal Code. Although the defendant had mitigating circumstances such as honest confession and remorse, it was all too late as his younger sibling had already died, and the grief has left an indelible scar on his family.
During the deliberation, S. stood on the judge's platform, tears streaming down his face, etched with wrinkles that could not erase the memory of that horrific morning. When people value "an inch of land" more than "a drop of blood," the outcome is always a bottomless abyss. The path S. fought for with blood led him straight to the judgment seat and endless days behind bars. The image of the defendant standing alone, head bowed, is proof that when greed reigns supreme, even the deepest bonds of affection are consumed.
The trial ended, and S. was escorted to the prison van in a chilling silence. There was no elderly mother waiting, no relatives trying to hold him back. Only the dry clanking of iron chains and the wind whistling through the cracks in the courthouse doors, like a mournful farewell to a family tragedy. There, victory or defeat, both sides fail before the court of morality. The ancestral land, stained with the blood of a son and the tears of a mother, became a silent witness to the collapse of a family's traditions.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/bi-kich-sau-cai-lac-dau-196260613191237694.htm
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