Defendant Le Quoc Khuong in court.
Recently, the Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance trial of defendant Le Quoc Khuong for the crime of "Brokering for others to illegally exit the country" as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 348 of the Penal Code.
In court, after the prosecution and the questioning, defendant Le Quoc Khuong recounted all of his crimes.
Around March 2022, due to needing a job, Le Quoc Khuong and his girlfriend Nguyen Thi Tuyet Phung (16 years old, the character's name has been changed) illegally left the country to work in Cambodia. Here, Khuong and Phung were assigned by a person named Dinh Phuong Anh to lure and entice others to go to Cambodia to work. If the "mission" was successful, they would be paid 500 USD/person. Khuong and Phung agreed.
A month later, through research, Khuong and Phung learned that Mr. Tran Hong Phuong D (born in 2003, from Tien Giang province) was Khuong's close friend and was looking for a job, so they immediately contacted Mr. D. Believing the invitation, D invited two of his friends, Th and N, to go with him.
On April 21, 2023, following Dinh Phuong Anh's instructions, D, Th, and N took a bus to Mien Tay Bus Station, Ho Chi Minh City, and then a car driver came to pick them up. On the way, N was called by her family, so she asked to get off the bus and not continue. Through a small-scale route, D and Th were taken by car to illegally exit the country to Sihanoukville province, Cambodia.
When asked about his work in Cambodia, Đ said that upon arrival, Đ and Th were separated to work at two different companies. The Chinese manager instructed them on how to install a gambling app, then lured others into depositing money into the app. “That morning, I was so sick that I couldn’t get up. The managers pulled me down from the bed and beat me, giving me electric shocks. When I asked to return home, they said that if I wanted to return, I had to call my relatives within 1 hour to send a ransom of 2,000 USD. Without any money, they put me in a car and sold me to another company about 2km away from the old company, near a forest.”
Being confined, exploited for labor and not paid as agreed. Stuck in a deadlock, at about 2:30 a.m. on June 30, 2022, from the 8th floor window of the company, D climbed down to the ground, fled into the forest and escaped. D contacted his family to take him back to Vietnam, then went to Chau Thanh District Police to report the crime.
Th, D's friend, after being taken to Cambodia, also fell into a similar situation, being sold from one company to another. On September 6, 2022, Th returned to Vietnam through the Ha Tien border gate, Kien Giang province and was administratively fined for "crossing the national border without completing entry procedures as prescribed by law".
In court, Khuong confessed that after tricking D and Th into going to Cambodia, Phuong Anh paid Khuong 200 USD. Khuong and Phung were also victims of the scam. On June 16, 2022, Phung heard that he would be sold to the island, so he borrowed money from friends for 3,100 USD to redeem himself, then returned to Vietnam. On June 20, 2022, Khuong also asked his biological mother for 100 million VND to give to the company and then took a bus back to Vietnam via Ha Tien border gate, Kien Giang province.
On July 1, 2022, Khuong and Phung continued to text each other introducing "easy work with high salary", making an appointment to meet Mr. Dang An Ph and Mr. Nguyen Phuoc T at An Hoi Park, Ben Tre City to broker a trip to Cambodia to work. While exchanging and enticing, Khuong and Phung were invited by Chau Thanh District Police in coordination with Ben Tre City Police to come in for questioning.
At the investigation agency, Le Quoc Khuong and Nguyen Thi Tuyet Phung confessed to all their crimes.
At court, defendant Le Quoc Khuong expressed remorse and regret, hoping for a reduced sentence so he could soon return to his family and rebuild his life.
Regarding Nguyen Thi Tuyet Phung, who, together with Le Quoc Khuong, "brokered for others to illegally exit the country", however, at the time of the crime, Phung was under 16 years old and therefore should not be held criminally responsible under Clause 1, Article 348 of the Penal Code. Chau Thanh District Police will consider handling Phung with other measures in accordance with the law.
Article and photos: Thanh Truc
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