The Kien Giang Provincial People's Court has just opened a trial in which Vu Dinh Khanh and Le Xuan Hong accused the Phu Quoc City administration of illegally dismantling their villas in Duong To Commune.
According to the complaint sent to the court by Khanh, he bought a land plot of half a hectare from a local man named Dao Van Quy in 2019. This was agricultural land and Quy has not been given a land use rights certificate by local authorities.
Khanh built the villa in 2020 and was not prevented or fined by the authorities. It was not until last August that the land management unit of Duong To Commune came and said he had illegally built the house on agricultural land and issued a fine of VND7.5 million. On October 31, 2022, Phu Quoc City issued the house demolition decision which requested him to dismantle the house within 10 days. Then local authorities sent a team to demolish his villa on November 9.
Khanh argued that his land plot didn't lie in the management authority of Duong To Commune so it was wrong when Duong To officers came to fine him. In addition, the local authorities had come to destroy his house before the 10-day deadline ended.
Le Xuan Hong, who also bought a half-hectare land plot and built a villa that was later demolished by authorities also sent a complaint to the court with the same accusations.
At the trial, the Kien Giang Provincial People's Court determined that Phu Quoc authorities were wrong to have sent Duong To Commune officers to deal with the case which did not fall under their management.
The court also noted that the forced demolition should only be carried out 15 days after the announcement had been made. So the authorities were wrong to have carried out the forced demolition after nine days.
Chairman of Phu Quoc City opposed the judgment of the Kien Giang Provincial People's Court and sent an appeal to the HCM City People's Court on September 28, asking for a rejection of the complaints by Hong and Khanh.
Phu Quoc City authorities started the demolition of 79 villas which were illegally constructed on agricultural land in Duong To Commune in 2022. The villas of Khanh and Hong were demolished last November. On September 18 this year, 14 more villas were dismantled.
