The Supreme People’s Court has protested the verdict arrived at by Hai Phong City’s Tien Lang District Court and the city People’s Court’s decision to suspend the appeal hearing of a farmer’s complaints against the district authorities’ withdrawal of agricultural land.

Doan Van Vuon's house in Vinh Quang Commune was demolished on January 6, 2012 - Photo: Dan Tri

The move was made three days after the Prime Minister concluded that the Tien Lang authorities violated the Law on Land in their withdrawal of a total of 40 hectares of land allocated in 1993 and 1997 to 49-year-old farmer Doan Van Vuon of Vinh Quang Commune.

The same day, Vu Van Luan, secretary of the Union of Brackish Water Aquaculture Associations in Tien Lang, said more than 20 other members of the Union have lodged complaints against the authorities’ unlawful decisions to reclaim their agricultural lands.

In the complaints, the members demand that the authorities pay them compensation.

The union also petitioned the city authorities to rescind all wrongful land decisions issued by the district authorities.

As reported earlier, in January 2010 the district People’s Court unlawfully rejected the complaints by Vuon against the land withdrawal decision made by the local authorities.

The two men appealed the judgment and in the appeal trial in April 2010, Ngo Van Anh, judge of the City People’s Court, ordered the creation of a written agreement between the parties concerned. Under the agreement, if Vuon revoked his complaint, the district authorities would continue to let them use the land.

After the complaint was withdrawn, however, and the City Court issued a decision to suspend the appeal hearing, the district authorities suddenly issued the forced removal decision to Vuon, leading to his violent response that caused injury to injury to six police officers on January 5, 2012.

Yesterday Pham Thi Nga, deputy chief judge of the Tien Lang People’s Court, who chaired the trial in which Vuon lost the case, told Tuoi Tre that the court based the final verdict on the 1987 Law on Land.

Meanwhile, standing deputy chairman of the city People’s Committee, Dan Duc Hiep, told Tuoi Tre that the committee was reviewing those decisions and would consult the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for resolution.

“If the withdrawn lots of land have been included in the city’s aquaculture development planning, they must be returned to their former owners, according to the 1993 Law on Land. If they are not in accordance with the planning, they will be handled under applicable regulations of the law.”