Czech man jailed for 18 years for stabbing Vietnamese woman to death

By Nguyen Quy   October 24, 2018 | 02:26 am PT
A court in the Czech Republic has sentenced a man to 18 years in jail for the brutal murder of a Vietnamese woman.

Vaclav Matous, 40, stabbed 53-year-old Tran Thi Tam at the Vratislavice nad Nisou Village on the outskirts of Liberec City in January this year.

Tam had migrated to the Czech Republic three years ago to reunite with her family, the trial heard Monday.

The murderer was also ordered to pay CZK2 million ($89,000) to the victim’s husband as compensation and an additional CZK32,000 ($1,423) for funeral services, said Czech newspaper Lidové Noviny.

According to the indictment, the culprit pretended to be a customer at a grocery store run by Tam, and attacked her while attempting to rob her. The Vietnamese woman succumbed to 14 stab wounds.

Using camera footage, local police detained the suspect the day after the murder incident took place.

He confessed to the police that he needed CZK5,000 ($221) to pay the rent for his apartment or be thrown out.

Liberec, near the border of Germany and Poland, is home to around 2,100 Vietnamese people.

More than 65,000 Vietnamese live in the Czech Republic now, making it the third biggest minority group in the country.

 
 
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