Le Dinh Kinh

Dong Tam is a rural commune belonging to My Duc District, Hanoi City, now also named after the long-standing land conflict between the residents of Hoanh Village and the government concerning the legal status of the traditionally agricultural land called Dong Senh. The conflict started in 2014, when the government tried to ban residents from entering and cultivating in Dong Senh. The hostility continued for several years and quickly attracted national attention when the leader of the village, Le Dinh Kinh, was allegedly kidnapped by public security forces, resulting in a serious leg injury in 2017. Subsequently, the villagers took dozens of public security officers hostage when they were surrounding Hoanh Village. Things only deescalated after Le Dinh Kinh was released. The 2020 deadly incident was unexpected by many observers.

While the authorities accused Le Dinh Kinh of orchestrating an attack against the public security force, at 3:00 am on January 9, 2020, some 3,000 police officers descended on Dong Tam village and attacked Kinh’s house with ammunition and without any  warrant. Kinh was asleep and was with his wife and other members of the family. Du Thi Thanh’s testimony asserts that he did not participate in any previous attack and was still alive when they forcefully took him away. During his funeral, the public security also barred many people from all over the country from visiting and heavily controlled the private event.

June 2020:

In a report released by Hanoi police investigators, authorities were formalizing charges of murder against 25 residents of Dong Tam Commune who were arrested after a violent early morning raid by local public security forces left three police officers and Kinh dead. Four others also face different charges. The report raised more questions in an already disputed case, such as “why DNA identifications were not made of the three police officers who died in the assault, reportedly by burning” and details of the case of Bui Viet Hieu, an elder activist who was shot and injured during the raid.

September 2020:

On September 7, 29 defendants from Dong Tam faced trial in Hanoi on charges of murder and resisting officials resulting from a violent, early-morning police raid in Dong Tam Commune in January 2020. The raid left a local land rights leader, Le Dinh Kinh, and three police officers dead. On September 14, after a trial that was cut short and was also riddled with procedural irregularities, two defendants-- both sons of Kinh-- were sentenced to death and one person to life in prison. Others received sentences ranging from suspended sentences to 16 years in prison. Several defendants alleged that they were tortured while awaiting trial. 

On the fourth day, after the prosecution wrapped up, defense lawyers did not get a chance to cross examine and argue their case against the Procuracy as allowed by the law. Their request to see records of the disputed land claims and how Kinh died was refused; so was the request to review “Plan 419A”, the pre-approved plan of attack against Dong Tam, because it was deemed a “national top secret.” Subpoenas for key government witnesses were also denied. The lawyer for the three police officers killed argued “it is not necessary” to try to reconstruct the events that led to his clients’ deaths by burning, even though this was the key event that caused several defendants to be charged with murder. After the trial, lawyers for the defendants were harassed, and supporters were subjected to attacks by pro-government online users. Lawyers for the defendants have until September 30 to appeal. Read our full analysis of the trial and sentencing, here.