Fairer to send Chung Le back home to Vietnam
I AM appalled by the story of Chung Le, a Vietnamese rice farmer who was lured away from his homeland with promises that he would receive profitable employment, earning good money to send back to his impoverished family ("Jail for man lured from Vietnam to grow drugs at city cannabis factory", Derby Telegraph, November 26).
He was never informed that he would be growing cannabis or that this was illegal. He paid a substantial amount of money to be brought here.
When he discovered what he was doing was illegal, he told his bosses that he wanted to leave but was put under pressure with threats of considerable violence.
Despite this, he left of his own volition and found honest work in a restaurant.
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Chung Le was put in an impossible position but he has shown that he never had any wish to be involved in a crooked practice.
Yet, despite doing all he could to extricate himself, he was sent to prison for seven months.
Perhaps he should never have been in the UK, but he only wanted to help his family. He was clearly no criminal, so why has he been victimised further by our legal system?
Would it not have been much fairer just to return Chung Le to Vietnam without a prison sentence?
Diana Baxter
Lothian Place
Derby
Comments
by Neo_MadBadger
Tuesday, December 04 2012, 8:13PM
“I agree that it would be more compassionate to return him to Vietnam so that even if he had to serve his sentence there he could at least be visited by his family, including his unwell father.
On the other hand, I imagine that the UK government wants to gaol him in the UK in order to make an example of him 'pour encourager les autres'.”