A Vietnam court has upheld the death sentence for a man who killed two children in Buon Me Thuot, the capital city of  the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, last year after he was caught attempting to steal a swan.

Vy Be Ngoat, 39, from the province’s Ea H’Leo District, who had appealed his capital sentence, saw the verdict maintained at his appeal hearing held on Monday by the appeal court of the Supreme People’s Court in the city.

Ngoat has been sentenced to death on charges of murder after he killed two children, H.C.N. and H.P.Q., 11 and 14 years old, whose parents lived in the same commune, Ea Hiao, as him last October.

At yesterday’s hearing, the jury rejected Ngoat’s appeal, stating that there are no grounds for him to deserve a commutation.

By killing two kids at the same time, he had committed a very cruel crime and deserved a death sentence, the jury said.

According to the indictment, on October 21, 2013, Ngoat was carrying coffee beans on a bicycle to a market in the commune when he saw a swan in the garden next to the house the two children lived in.

He entered the yard and grabbed the swan. N. caught him in the act and threatened to tell somebody about the theft.

Ngoat then snapped the animal’s neck and threw it down, before grabbing a hammer he found nearby and beating the child in the head to death.

After hearing N. scream terribly, Q. ran out of the house to see what was happening. Ngoat then beat him to death with the same hammer.  

Ngoat then ran away, throwing the hammer into a cassava garden.

The murderer later fled to the province’s Kong Pak to hide from police, but he was arrested four days later.

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