A court in Vietnam condemned a porter to death on Monday for murdering two co-workers over a debt last year.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court gave Bui Chi Thanh, 41, the death penalty on charges of murder.

Thanh, a porter from the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, blatantly broke the law and made light of human lives, using a weapon to vigorously attack his victims because of a minor conflict in daily life, the court said.

Thanh, L.H.H., T.V.T. , and N.T.K worked as porters at a transport company in the city, according to court documents.

Around noon on March 13, 2020, the four were playing cards for money in the parking lot of their company in Nha Be District, Ho Chi Minh City when a row erupted between Thanh and H. over a debt the latter had not paid the former for two weeks.

H. hit Thanh in one of his shoulders after the latter splashed water on their table.

Thanh grabbed a bamboo pipe for smoking tobacco to strike H. in the head.

Both wrestled with each other till they reached the kitchen where Thanh took a knife and stabbed H. in his temples and arms.

H. fell down to the ground following the stabbings.

Thanh went on to stab T. three times upon seeing him coming to the kitchen, thinking he was rushing to help H..

He then attacked K. with an iron stick before fleeing the scene on his motorbike.

T. was pronounced dead at the hospital while H. could not make it through either.

Thanh caught a bus to Ca Mau Province, over 300km southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, before his family persuaded him into turning himself in to police officers on March 15 last year.

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