Vietnamese judicial agencies have finally issued a formal public apology to an 81 year-old man in Bac Ninh Province who has been cleared of a murder sentence issued more than 40 years ago.
The Supreme People’s Court Tuesday said that Tran Van Them, who was sentenced to death in 1973, was innocent.
On August 11, senior judge Bui Ngoc Hoa from the Supreme People’s Court read the apology in Them's hometown in Yen Phong District witnessed by representatives of judicial agencies, provincial authorities and his relatives.
Tran Van Them gets the formal public apology from Vietnamese judicial agencies
Them and his cousin Nguyen Khac Van went to Vinh Phuc Province to sell pipe tobacco on July 23, 1970. While resting at a local barber shop at night after finishing their work, they were attacked by a robber. As a result, Van was killed and Them suffered from head injuries.
Them said they had been robbed, but local authorities insisted he was the prime suspect and detained him. In August 1972, the People’s Court of Vinh Phuc charged him with murdering his cousin and sentenced him to death. Them appealed against the conviction, however, in 1973, he lost his appeal and the death sentence was upheld by the appeals court.
In 1975, a man confessed to kill Van and the Supreme Court ordered a fresh investigation and then freed Them from prison, but there was no official declaration that he was innocent.
He also would soon receive compensation
After returning home, he faced discrimination from his neighbours and particularly the family of this cousin who died due to being attacked by the robber. Then, Them and his family tried to collect evidence about the case to submit to judicial agencies for many times, but the agencies said that the incident happened during the war in the 1970s so some of the related papers had been lost.
In 2014, the Supreme People’s Court found the two verdicts in Them’s case to have been incorrect and ordered judicial agencies to change the verdict to not guilty for the old man.
Them said that now he is very happy when the authorities made a public apology that he was wrongly charged so that he will not have to bear the shame of killing his cousin any longer.
According to senior judge Bui Van Hoa from the Supreme People’s Court, Them would soon receive compensation.
