On 11/8, the former Supreme People's Procuracy's appellate division in Da Nang sent an official request to the Supreme People's Procuracy to appeal for retrial. They are seeking to overturn the original and appellate court verdicts against Dung (42, also known as Ty Cung, a notorious gangster in Gia Lai).
Dung had prior convictions for disturbing public order and robbery. In 2009, shortly after his release from prison, he was involved in a murder case in the mountain town and received an eight-year sentence for intentional injury.
In the early morning of 2/9/2019, Dung's group and a rival group (12 people in total) clashed at the Pleiku night market. Dung fatally shot a 22-year-old man and injured another. While the victim was receiving emergency care at the hospital, Ty Cung's underlings kidnapped him, took him to a cemetery, beat him, and abandoned him.
During the investigation, authorities questioned Dung's cognitive abilities and control over his actions before, during, and after the crime. They requested an assessment from the Central Mental Hospital in Bien Hoa. The assessment concluded that Dung suffered from "adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood; emotionally unstable personality disorder."
Based on this assessment, the Gia Lai People's Procuracy ordered Dung's compulsory treatment from June 2020 to April 2024.
At the end of 3/2025, the Gia Lai People's Court sentenced Dung to 14 years for murder and two years for illegal use of military weapons (Article 304 of the penal code), totaling 16 years. Three months later, the Da Nang High People's Court reduced the sentence by two years on appeal.
According to the Da Nang appellate division, both the initial and appellate courts misapplied Article 304 of the penal code in sentencing Dung.
Specifically, Dung used a gun, killing one person and injuring another with a 20% bodily injury rate. While the death was addressed under the murder charge, it was also a consequence of the illegal use of military weapons. This action should have been prosecuted under point c, clause 2 of Article 304, with the aggravating circumstance of causing death (carrying a sentence of 5-12 years), to comply with the law.
The Gia Lai judicial sector could consult similar cases published online.
The Da Nang appellate division argues that the initial and appellate court verdicts contained "serious errors in the application of the law," and the forensic psychiatric assessment from the Central Mental Hospital in Bien Hoa dated 15/5/2020 is inaccurate. Therefore, they have requested that the Supreme People's Procuracy appeal for a retrial, overturning both verdicts and reopening the investigation according to legal procedures.
While Dung was undergoing treatment in 2022, 11 individuals involved in the clash were sentenced by the Gia Lai People's Court to a total of 21 years in prison for disturbing public order, intentional injury, and unlawful detention.
In mid-2024, the Ministry of Public Security arrested several managers and doctors at the Central Mental Hospital in Bien Hoa for bribery, bribery mediation, and giving bribes. They were accused of accepting money to falsify medical records, indicating "limited or lost cognitive and behavioral control."
Tran Hoa
