The Supreme People’s Court has delivered the death sentence to Nguyen Duc Nghia, a 26-year-old man who beheaded his ex-girlfriend in a case that has attracted considerable public attention.

Nghia was sentenced to death on July 14 by the Hanoi People’s Court for murder, and he appealed to the supreme court but his attempt failed after the court announced to keep the verdict on Thursday.

The judges said Nghia killed 26-year-old Nguyen Phuong Linh on purposes; he robbed some of her properties after beheading her.

Nghia still has a chance to ask for State President Nguyen Minh Triet’s amnesty, the judges said at the appeal trial.

Hundreds of people rushed to the trial to hear a case they said was “too cruel” and reflected the sick minds of young, cold-blooded criminals.

Nghia was arrested on May 18, one day after Hanoi police found Linh’s headless, naked and rotting body at the top floor of an apartment building in Cau Giay District.

According to police, on May 4, Nghia asked Linh to meet him at the apartment of his new girlfriend, Yen, on the 11th floor of the G4 apartment building.

Yen was visiting her hometown and had asked Nghia to take care of it in her absence.

The indictment said that after Nghia and Linh made love, he stabbed her to death, then cut off her head and fingers before wrapping her torso in a blanket and stashing it on the building’s rooftop.

He then sold her motorbike, laptop and mobile phone for some money, the court was told.

Linh’s head was found in a plastic bag which drifted off a river in the northern Quang Ninh Province on June 7.

Police said Nghia and Linh started a romantic relationship in 2006 and broke up one year later.

They said Nghia may have killed his ex-girlfriend to rob some properties for money, because he was a game addict.

Meanwhile, Nghia denied killing her for money, saying he was just jealous after knowing Linh had a new boyfriend.

Several days before the appeal trial, Nghia’s father was killed in a road accident, prompting his mother to send a letter to the Supreme People’s Court asking for clemency for her son.

Source: Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien