Vietnamese trainee, stillborn twins dumped dead, Supreme Court to resume arguments, possible review of convictions

The Supreme Court has decided to hear arguments in February next year in the case of a Vietnamese technical intern accused of abandoning the bodies of stillborn twins. The conviction may be reviewed.

In November last year, the defendant, Le Thi Thuy Linh (23), a Vietnamese national who was a technical intern at the time, was accused of dumping the stillborn twins' bodies in a cardboard box at her home in Ashikita town.

At the trial, the defendant pleaded not guilty because the defendant's act was to lay the bodies to rest using the limited objects at hand and could not be said to offend religious sentiments.

However, the Kumamoto District Court of the first instance handed down a sentence of eight months imprisonment and a suspended sentence of three years, because the defendant's act was preparation for a private burial while concealing the stillbirth from others, and it offended general religious sentiment among the public.

On the other hand, the Fukuoka High Court of the second trial ruled that there was an error in the first trial's finding of facts, and overturned the judgment of the first trial. This act made it difficult for others to discover it," and sentenced him to three months in prison and two years of probation. 

The defendants, who were dissatisfied with the judgment, appealed against it in January 2022, but the Second Petty Bench of the Supreme Court decided to hear arguments in February next year.