Ho Chi Minh City People’s Appeal Court today sentenced two young men from the Mekong Delta region 47 years in jail for robbery, rape and murder of a woman.

After a drinking party with co-workers of a mill in Binh Chanh District in January last year, To Thanh Han, 21, from Tra Vinh, and Tran Xuan Canh, 19, from Ben Tre, went out to seek for prostitutes.

While waiting at an uninhabited piece of land near their work place, they saw a female passer-by walking past and solicited her. Despite the woman rejected the solicitation, they pulled her to fall down, tied her and took turn to rape her.

Han even searched her pocket and took away VND156,000 (US$7.5).

Fearing her possible denunciation, Han discussed with Canh to kill the victim to destroy traces of their crimes. Han strangled her with his hands until she stopped breathing. Thinking that the victim died, both of them dragged her to a nearby uninhabited house, dug a hole and buried her.

Luckily, several guards of a recent factory then discovered the incident and took the victim to hospital. She was rescued later.

The murderers hid themselves before being collared by police soon later.

In April this year, they had stood their first trial when Han was sentenced 30 years imprisonment and Canh 15 years. However, the appeal court today handed Canh 17 years in jail.