The People’s Court of Di An commune in the southern province of Binh Duong on June 5 imprisoned three offenders who took advantage of the recent protests against China’s illegal actions in Vietnam’s waters in some local industrial parks to commit law violations.

Nguyen Van Tich, 37, Nguyen Phuoc Sang, 23, and Nguyen Van Diep, 23, all from Binh Duong, were sentenced to five months, four months and seven months of imprisonment, respectively, for the charge of “stealing property”.

According to the jury, on the night of May 13, Tich and Sang together exploited the chaotic situation to steal 19 bicycle spare parts worth 2.6 million VND (123 USD).

At the same time, Diep took away two new bicycles valued at 4.5 million VND (214 USD).

The same day, the court also sentenced Hoang Van Xuyen, 31, from the central province of Thanh Hoa , to 20 months of imprisonment for “resisting on-duty officials”.

His verdict read that while workers took to the street in an orderly fashion on May 13 to protest China ’s illegal placement of its oil rig in Vietnam ’s waters, Xuyen, who was accompanied by four other men, mixed with the crowd to cause chaos so that they could steal the property of enterprises.

Xuyen and his accomplices burgled two air conditioners and some steel bars from O Media company in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in Thuan An district and hid them in their houses.

After being stopped by the local traffic police on the way back to the site, Xuyen resisted by attacking officers, stealing a weapon and destroying his own car to blame it on the police.

Xuyen and his accomplices will be judged in another trial for “stealing property”.-VNA