At a review hearing on Wednesday, the Judge’s Council of the Supreme People’s Court has canceled both verdicts on a man who spent 10 years in jail on a life sentence for a murder he apparently did not commit. He was released on Monday after the alleged real killer handed himself in to police. 

>> President urges compensation to miscarriage of justice victim >> Lifer’s sentence suspended when real culprit turns himself in The hearing, which was opened under a protest by the Supreme People’s Procuracy, was chaired by Chief Judge of the Supreme People’s Court Truong Hoa Binh, with the attendance of head of the Procuracy Nguyen Hoa Binh. At the session, after listening to the protest and the relevant grounds presented by a Procuracy representative, the Judge’s Council approved of the protest and cancelled both the first-instance verdict and the appeal verdict on the accused, 52-year-old Nguyen Thanh Chan, a native of Viet Yen District, northern Bac Giang Province. The Council demanded the case be reinvestigated after the alleged real killer, Ly Nguyen Chung, 25, also of Viet Yen, presented himself to police in Dak Lak Province on October 25. The cancellations do not mean Chan has been pronounced innocent, since he must wait for the results of the reinvestigation of the case, in which Chung pleaded guilty to killing a woman, Nguyen Thi H., who also lived in the district, on August 15, 2103 to steal two rings and VND59,000 (US$2.8). Earlier on Tuesday, President Truong Tan Sang asked concerned agencies to offer compensation and vindication to Chan if there are enough grounds to conclude that he is innocent and has been wrongly convicted. The President also requested that anyone who committed wrongdoings that led to the wrong sentencing be held responsible. Chan was sentenced to life by the Bac Giang Province People’s Court in March, 2004. He appealed, affirming that he was innocent and that he had been forced by investigators to falsely plead guilty. However, at the appeal hearing, the Supreme People’s Court in Hanoi upheld the life sentence.

During the past 10 years in prison, Chan always maintained he was innocent, and the prison management had sent his petition to the Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procurary for consideration. Nguyen Thi Chien, Chan’s wife, also lodged a petition. It was she who pointed out that Chung was the real murderer, not her husband.

Police have questioned Chung’s step-mother and brother and both confirmed that Chung was the killer.