The Hai Phong City People’s Court has given sentences to five former officials who were charged with “destroying property, being irresponsible and causing serious consequences” in a forced land eviction in Tien Lang District’s Vinh Quang Commune last year. After three days of trial, the court this morning sentenced Nguyen Van Khanh, former deputy chairman of the district People’s Committee, to 30 months in jail on charges of “destroying property”. For the same charges, Pham Xuan Hoa, former head of the district Natural Resources and Environment Office, and Le Thanh Liem, former chairman of the commune People’s Committee, each received a 24-month suspended sentence, while Pham Dang Hoan, former secretary of the commune's Party Committee, was given a suspended sentence of 15 months. The last defendant, Le Van Hien, former chairman of the district People’s Committee cum deputy secretary of the district Party Committee, was given the same sentence as Hoan for “being irresponsible and causing serious consequences”. According to the indictment from the Hai Phong City People’s Procuracy on January 7, the District People’s Committee issued a decision on November 24, 2011 to force Doan Van Vuon, a 50-year-old farmer in the commune, to return 19.3 hectares of aquatic farmland, as the lease term had expired. Vuon did not agree to the withdrawal. On the same day, the Committee issued a plan on forced land withdrawal to take back the land from Vuon. Accordingly, Hien assigned Nguyen Van Khanh, Pham Xuan Hoa and Le Thanh Liem to implement the plan. However, on December 28, 2011 Khanh signed a notice on deploying forces to pull down the houses in the eviction area.  Khanh later, on January 5, 2012, ordered Hoa, Liem, Hoan and others to dismantle Vuon and Quy’s houses. Quy is Vuon’s younger brother. The destruction caused a total damage estimated to be over VND295 million (US$14,000).