A court in the northern province of Thai Nguyen has sentenced two men to life in prison for throwing a mine into the house of a senior police officer four years ago.
Nguyen Viet Hoa, 40, and Dong Van Bich, 37, were also ordered by the court last week to compensate more than 60 families whose properties were damaged in the explosion. No one was hurt.
According to the indictment, in January 2012 Hoa hired Bich to blow up the house of Nguyen Nhu Tuan, the head of Thai Nguyen Police, with explosive.
Hoa reportedly sent the mine to Bich, who then threw it into Tuan’s house on a busy street in Thai Nguyen Town at around 2 a.m. on January 7, 2012.
Tuan detonated the mine and fled. The explosion damaged most of Tuan's house and 62 other houses nearby were affected, with total damage estimated at more than VND1.7 billion (US$76,000).
Local media reports on the case did not reveal Hoa's motive.
Both of them are already serving jail terms of more than 20 years for different convictions. They were arrested two years after the explosion.