The first-instance hearing against 29 land petitioners in Dong Tam commune was scheduled on September 7 and is announced as a public trial. However, the lawyers expect that the relatives and the families of the defendants would not be able to enter the courtroom.
Witnesses appeared in important events, such as agents holding guns directly in Le Dinh Kinh’s bed or soldiers directly on the terrace next to the sky well known as death pit or technical hole is said to have burned to death 3 police officers will not be invited to the court for questioning although defendants’ lawyers have requested. So it will be very difficult for lawyers to prove the truth of the case and the standards for justice and fairness are extremely low.
Moreover, although the court has not convened yet, the government has concluded on behalf of the Court and recognized 3 dead as martyrs, promoted to higher rank and awarded medals. In addition, the state-controlled media has convicted most of the accused while the Ministry of Public Security had the exclusive right to speak about the details of the case, especially the details of the death of Le Dinh Kinh who was said to holding grenades before and after being shot.
Therefore, the public and the lawyers understand that the judgment has already been made and the trial is only expected to be a stage show for the correct procedure.
The trial is expected to last 10 days, starting from September 7 to adjudicate 29 Dong Tam people related to the clash with the police on January 9, 2020, in which elderly community leader Kinh was killed while three police officers were said to have died from being burning by land petitioners.
Of these, 25 were accused of murder. The remaining four were charged with “resisting on-duty state officials.”
Is the court “closed” or “open”?
From Hanoi, lawyer Le Van Hoa told BBC News Vietnamese that he is providing legal support to four Dong Tam land petitioners including Mr. Le Dinh Cong, Le Dinh Chuc, Le Dinh Uy, and Ms. Tran Thi La.
Lawyer Hoa said that in terms of law, this is a public trial. That means that any interested citizen has the right to attend. But according to him, in the upcoming trial, only those summoned will attend, which is unlikely to include the defendants’ relatives.
“I think the authorities will prepare very meticulously for the security and order of this trial. Especially the area around the Hanoi court will definitely have very strict traffic control. Those with functions may enter the court area,” Hoa told BBC.
Mr. Hoa assessed that because the nature of this case is particularly important and serious, the security work is even enhanced and tightened than other cases.
“With the practice that I have experienced in some sensitive court cases, especially in cases of national security, the attorney’s participation in the courtroom is often is greatly restricted.”
“For example, lawyers are not allowed to bring phones, recorders, computers into the courtroom. Access to the courtroom is subject to very tight security control, screening of passers-by and vehicles and bags, documents brought in.”
Lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan from Hanoi, who is defending Mr. Le Dinh Quang, Bui Viet Hieu and Nguyen Quoc Tien, also told BBC News Vietnamese that no family members of the defendants will be permitted to attend this “open” trial.
Mr. Le Dinh Kinh’s wife and daughter-in-law – important witnesses
To protect the clients’ rights, lawyer Le Van Hoa told BBC News Vietnamese that he would petition the trial panel to invite two important witnesses of the case, Ms. Du Thi Thanh, the widow of Mr. Le Dinh. Kinh – who was killed during the police raid on Jan 9, and Nguyen Thi Duyen- the wife of Le Dinh Uy, who is a son of Le Dinh Cong and a grandson of Le Dinh Kinh.
“Widow Du Thi Thanh is one of the very important pieces of evidence that needs to be summoned to the court to clarify details of the police presence at her home on the morning of Jan 9.
“Mrs. Nguyen Thi Duyen has filed a high complaint against the police forces when they searched her house and confiscated some of her property such as a car. She also reported losing her belongings such as necklaces and money. Her petition was sent to the Hanoi police to request an investigation and demanded for returning her items.
“In addition, Ms. Duyen and her newborn child were also taken with a number of other people to a location where the authorities questioned before releasing them in the dawn event on Jan 9. Thanh and Duyen are two very important witnesses of the case,” said lawyer Hoa.
Lawyer Le Van Hoa sent a petition to the Trial Panel to invite 22 individuals and representatives of agencies involved in the case as witnesses. These include National Assembly member Duong Trung Quoc, Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung, lawyer Tran Vu Hai who gave legal advice to Dong Tam people, especially soldiers who were present when Mr. Le Dinh Kinh was killed, and those policemen who broke into the houses of Le Dinh Chuc and Le Dinh Hoi. The people involved also include leaders of the Riot Police agencies, representatives of the military … In short, those who hear about the details of the case can help make the truth clear at court.
But there is little hope that the court will accept the petition of the attorney. In most cases, the court usually rejects this request of the lawyer and personally invite witnesses that the court deems necessary.
This will be a great difficulty when lawyers want to raise an objective basis for clients.
‘Access to case files
Attorney Hoa said that he found difficult to be able to meet with jailed clients and access records. He had to send a number of petitions to relevant agencies before his requests were met.
Until now, he was allowed to meet with Mr. Cong, Chuc, and Huy. He was not permitted to meet with defendant La though he had requested for that many times.
“A difficult case for all parties”
Lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan told BBC News Vietnamese that this would be a difficult case for all parties and he did not make any predictions for the outcome of the upcoming trial.
Meanwhile, lawyer Le Van Hoa said in his personal view, “this is a painful case for the Vietnamese people, stemming from the land dispute.”
“The authorities should not have pushed it to a sad ending, with four dead, including one resident and three police officers, with dire consequences.”
“I hope that the leaders of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the authorities if there is a special request, can reveal a certain result to help heal and calm the situation. But I do not know if that can happen,” said lawyer Hoa.
The lawyers are expected to meet with some of the defendants one more time before the trial takes place.
In the attack with more than 3,000 riot policemen on Jan 9, elderly Le Dinh Kinh, who is considered the spiritual leader of the land petitioners was shot to dead, 3 police officers were said to have died also, and 29 people were arrested, prosecuted, and awaiting trial.
According to Lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, who defends 5 land petitioners in Dong Tam, this is a very difficult case in the practice of lawyers:
“Only the most recent time, when there is a continuous request of lawyers about the contact with the defendants, the problem has been overcome, but only recently. Still, other issues are generally very difficult. For example, lawyers have raised requests for additional procedures. As a rule, the requests of lawyers must be resolved by the court before the hearing, but the requests of lawyers not been resolved a few days before the trial. Therefore, I see things are not very favorable for lawyers.”
Commenting on the upcoming trial, lawyer Nguyen Kha Thanh commented: “I see this case is quite large, up to 32 lawyers involved and this case is complicated, we are studying carefully when going to court we can raise our opinions. Hope to be able to defend the defendants in court. Now, the conviction or prosecution is of the investigative agency, but from the perspective of the lawyer, we must try to find out the evidence to give the unreasonable things, try to present to the trial panel, so we have to be careful.”
According to Lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan, the chance for relatives of the defendants to participate in this trial is very low:
“This is a public trial, not a secret trial but it is certainly quite difficult for the relatives of the defendants to be present at the trial, there may be only lawyers and procedural agencies, participants in the proceedings, there may be some state media involved. Relatives of the defendant almost certainly cannot enter because they do not have permisions. As for the specific content of the trial, we may not update it now.”
Thoibao.de (Translated)
