A Vietnamese-Laotian man, Ho Van Nguyen, was arrested in Laos after involving in a murder in Vietnam, but due to a mutual judicial assistance agreement between the two countries, he is unlikely to be extradited to Vietnam for trial. Colonel Nguyen Trong Tieng, Commander of Border Guard in northern Quang Tri Province said they are seeking intervention from the Foreign Ministry and the Government to ask the Lao Government to allow extradition of Nguyen to Vietnam. Nguyen, 29, a resident in the Lao province of Savannakhet, was arrested on Thursday, April 4, by provincial police after their Vietnamese counterparts asked for their assistance in hunting the last culprit in the killing of five aloe wood hunters in a forest in Quang Tri on March 24. The forest was near the Vietnam-Lao border and Nguyen returned to Savannakhet after he and his two Vietnamese accomplices, Ho Van Cong and Ho Van Thanh, committed the crime. Cong and Thanh were arrested on Tuesday and pleaded guilty of murder. Based on their testimonies, Quang Tri police traced down Nguyen. Under the laws of Laos as well as the mutual judicial assistance agreement between Laos and Vietnam, Lao citizens who commit crimes in foreign countries will be under jurisdiction of Laos, said Colonel Tran Duc Viet.  However, Viet said,  a special investigation team of Quang Tri arrived in Savannakhet yesterday to question Nguyen about the killing. Nguyen initially told the team that Cong and Thanh, after knowing that he had an AK assault rifle, incited him to take part in capturing aloe wood hunters for ransom. Nguyen said he had used the gun to threaten the five aloe wooden hunters before Cong and Thanh killed them one by one.

As previously reported, the killing occurred at 2 am on March 24 and the killers would have killed six men if one of them had not managed to escape. Do Van Hien, the survivor, said he had successfully untied himself and ran away and reported the case to police.