Vietnam opens trial of 15 suspects linked to plot to blow up biggest airport
26/12/17
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Tan Son Nhat international airport |
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They made botched attempts to deploy petrol
bombs at Tan Son Nhat airport and at the residences of government leaders.
A court in Ho Chi Minh
City begin Tuesday a rare trial of 15 people accused of plotting to deploy
petrol bombs to blow up Tan Son Nhat International Airport as the country was
preparing to celebrate one of its biggest holidays.
The defendants are
charged with “terrorism to oppose the people’s administration,” a crime
punishable by death in Vietnam.
The verdict is expected Friday.
According to the indictment, Dao Minh Quan and Pham Lisa,
who led an overseas "subversive" group, hatched the terrorist plot.
They have not been arrested yet.
From 2016, Quan and
Lisa used social media to reach out to many people in Vietnam to set
up terrorist groups to
“kill all, burn all, and destroy all,” Vietnamese prosecutors said.
Last April, Lisa instructed Dang Hoang Thien and several
others to deploy petrol bombs at Tan Son Nhat airport to sabotage the city's
celebrations of its unification and victory over the Americans that led to the
end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975.
The airport operation was funded with nearly VND12 million
($530), prosecutors said.
On April 22, Ngo Thuy Truong Vy and Truong Tan Phat
brought two petrol bombs inside paper boxes to the airport, leaving one at the
parking lot and the other at the international terminal.
Passengers at the terminal found the box suspicious and
alarmed the airport security.
Thien failed to detonate the bomb at the parking lot as he
was too far away, so he had it moved to the international terminal, where he
successfully ignited it, sending passengers fleeing in panic.
Investigation found
that in early April, Thien and his accomplices had burned down a police’s
warehouse of 320 motorbikes impounded for traffic violations in Bien Hoa Town
which neighbors Saigon, causing nearly VND1.3 billion ($57,300) in damage.
The other members of the group were also plotting
different terrorist attacks across Vietnam, according to the
indictment.
They had bought guns
from Cambodia and made
petrol bombs in an attempt to attack supermarkets in Saigon
and residences of government leaders. They were also accused of staging
protests outside the city’s Notre Dame Cathedral, investigators
found. Vietnamese security forces foiled all these plots.
Terrorist attacks are extremely rare in Vietnam.
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