Mr. Nguyễn Văn Chưởng’s five-member family was just another local working-class family in the area. Mr. Chưởng’s father, Nguyễn Trường Chinh, had served in the military. [1] Mr. Chưởng grew up with an older sister and a younger brother named Nguyễn Trọng Đoàn. In their childhood, times were tough. Both Mr. Chưởng and his older sister had to stop their education after middle school to work, allowing Mr. Đoàn the chance to continue studying. He was an outstanding student, and he still keeps some of the awards he received for his academic achievements. [2] But because of the family’s financial struggles, Mr. Đoàn decided not to go to university and joined his siblings in working.
Knowing their family’s hardships, they encouraged each other to work hard. Mr. Đoàn recalls his brother’s hard work, “He buys potatoes, and every day around 1 or 2 in the morning, he would leave for Hai Phong to sell them. No matter the weather, he’d go. Some days, he even faced losses.” [3] Later, Mr. Chưởng and Mr. Đoàn worked for a relative’s transport company, managing paperwork for imported goods and then transporting these goods to various businesses. While life wasn’t luxurious for them, it was stable enough.
But tragedy struck in 2007. Early on August 3rd, Mr. Chưởng and two others were arrested, accused of being connected to the death of Lieutenant Nguyễn Văn Sinh in Hải Phòng on July 14th. [4] The family was blindsided. Mr. Đoàn remembers the shock: “Had our mom been home when she heard this news, she would’ve been devastated.” [5][6]
Days later, a friend named Trường informed Mr. Đoàn that on July 15th, 2007, Mr. Chưởng was in Hải Dương, not Hải Phòng, where the crime took place. Mr. Đoàn and Trường visited places they had been that day, gathering evidence to clear Mr. Chưởng’s name. An exoneration petition was sent to the Hải Phòng City Police Department on August 5th, 2007. [7]
On August 10th, having received no updates, Mr. Đoàn’s mother urged him to inquire about Mr. Chưởng at the police department. When he arrived, he was unexpectedly assaulted and threatened by the police. They pointed to a bloodstain on the wall, showing a large club, and remarked on how Mr. Chưởng couldn’t endure their beatings. [8] An officer named Minh eventually persuaded a distressed Mr. Đoàn to sign a paper stating, “that day my brother didn’t return [to Hải Dương],” which was later used against Mr. Chưởng.
By 11 a.m., concerned by Mr. Đoàn’s absence and too fearful to enter the police station, Mr. Đoàn’s friend returned home to inform his parents. That evening, the people who had provided testimonies on Mr. Chưởng’s behalf were also summoned. [9] Ultimately, Mr. Đoàn was urgently arrested for “concealment of crimes.”
In the detention center, Mr. Đoàn’s cellmate recounted the severe beating Mr. Chưởng had suffered to the point of being immobilized. “The day we passed each other for the first time, we just cried, unable to speak. We wanted to scream, but the pain was too much to even do that,” Mr. Đoàn recalled. [10] Other witnesses also confirmed they had been tortured and forced to provide false testimonies. [11]
On June 12th, 2008, at the Hải Phòng City Court, Mr. Chưởng was sentenced to death for murder and robbery, while Mr. Đoàn was sentenced to two years for “concealment of crimes.” [12] The sentences remained unchanged in the appellate court on November 21st, 2008. After his release, Mr. Đoàn tried to rebuild his life and fought for his brother’s exoneration. Sadly, he passed away in June 2023 after battling bone cancer.
On August 4th, 2023, Mr. Chưởng’s family received a notice from the court to claim his remains, leaving unclear if he had already been executed.
That’s how an uninvited tragedy from nowhere tore apart a little family. For 17 years, Mr. Chưởng has secretly smuggled out clothes with embroidered poems of his grievances using soft threads, and secret letters revealing that he has been brutally tortured and coerced into making false confessions, hidden inside deer figures he knitted from plastic bags. The efforts of Mr. Chưởng to voice his grievances are too numerous to list, including tactfully leaving the initials EC (meaning ‘Forced Confession’) underneath his signatures on his confession documents.17 years has passed, his parents sold their house and left for Hanoi as homeless people, enduring many harassment in their journey to seek justice. Mr. Nguyễn Văn Chưởng’s 17 years in solitary confinement is also the 17 years sentence against a family that loves each other, and an individual with a precious desire to life.
References:
[1] https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=191200568752504 [2] [5] [8] [10] https://www.facebook.com/chuyencuathinh/posts/pfbid0t1hfvcNApU1E9LoXufDpfaDeNkdYkY1JDzCt44hUNTEcBRgFAa2UXgsbYv8P2seYl [3] [6] https://www.luatkhoa.com/2023/08/em-trai-nguyen-van-chuong-anh-toi-dang-o-hai-duong-khi-thieu-ta-bi-giet-o-hai-phong/ [4] [12] https://www.luatkhoa.com/2015/03/cac-dien-bien-chinh-cua-vu-an-nguyen-van-chuong-lien-tuc-cap-nhat/ [7] [9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB-PS7NODVs [11] https://tienphong.vn/nhung-uan-khuc-can-lam-ro-trong-vu-sat-hai-thieu-ta-ca-post100688.tpo
