Vo Ngoc, 65, son of the wrongly accused Vo Te, said his family was informed of the compensation on Tuesday.
The Central Province Procuratorate would financially compensate Te and his relatives for loss of income, loss of property, mental impacts and financial support of six of his children, who were under 18 at the time of his imprisonment, among others costs.
In 1980, Phan Thi Khanh, then 26, was murdered and had her gold stolen while returning home from work in Tan Phuc commune, Ham Tan district.
Ham Tan police then arrested Te, a herbalist who lived about 300m from the crime scene, charging him with murder and theft. Five months after his arrest, he was released because provincial police did not find enough evidence to charge him.
Since the day Te was arrested, his family lived in shame and was rejected by their neighbors. Te’s children had to drop out of school. Te himself fell ill and died in 1994.
In 2020, after years of collecting evidence to find his mother’s killer, Khanh’s son Do Thanh An reported to Binh Thuan police that the real murderer was Truong Dinh Chi, who has since changed his name and address several times. Te’s family was then helped by some lawyers to file complaints with various authorities.
In late 2021, Binh Thuan police, in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Security, discovered that Chi was living in neighboring Phu Yen province. Chi admitted to murdering Khanh, but Binh Thuan police could not charge him because the case had expired.
On June 17, 2022, representatives of the Binh Thuan police and the People’s Procuratorate admitted to unjustly detaining Te.
Ngoc said the compensation of VND1.9 billion will not be able to compensate for all the physical and mental losses of the family, especially that of his late father.
“But they publicly apologized and restored my father’s honor, so my family is happy,” he said.