[jackbl]

Cop demands sex from detainee’s wife, suspended
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A woman whose husband is detained in Quang Ninh Province has accused a police lieutenant colonel of soliciting sex and demanding money from her in return for his help in lowering her husband’s offense.


After receiving the complaint from 26-year-old Bui Thi Th., of Cam Pha Town, local police last Saturday suspended for a month Nguyen Van Thuong, an official of the social order crime investigation team of the town police, Nguoi Lao Dong reported.

Thuong had earlier been assigned to investigate a human trafficking case that involves Le Huu Tuan, Th.’s husband, the owner of a massage facility, said Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Quoc Tien, head of the town police.

In her complaint, Th. said a strange man claiming to be a police officer phoned her from number 0915412xxx saying he would visit her on November 20 to clarify some details related to her husband.

Meeting Th. at home that day, the man, in a police uniform, said he was Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Thuong, a social crime investigator at the town police department.

After talking for a while, Thuong rushed to the woman and embraced her, but she managed to escape from him. She then asked him to let her meet her husband, who was arrested on September 14, but Thuong said if Th. agreed to go out to dinner with him, he would arrange for her to meet Tuan.

Thuong also asked Th to pay VND20 million (US$950) to him as a fine for her husband operating unlicensed massage services, but he later reduced the amount to VND10 million, explaining that he sympathized with her, since she has to nurse her baby while her husband is in jail.

However, he asked Th. to pay the “penalty” that same day.

"Love at the first sight"

In talking with Th. in subsequent phone calls later in the day, he demanded that she go with him to a hotel room “to exchange confidences.” He also excused his discourteous behaviors to Th. by saying that he fell in love with her at first sight.

That night, after sending Th. a text message, “Let’s meet tonight. I will come to pick up you,” Thuong came to Th.’s house in a car, but Th. refused to go with him.

Th. said Thuong came again the next day on a motorbike, but she had left the house before he arrived.

Thuong later called Th. many times and said that if she wanted to meet Tuan, she should address him not as “chú” [in Vietnam, a man is called this by others who are around the age of his children] but as “anh” [which is used to address a man who is not old enough to be called “chú”].

He also asked Th. to meet him at a hotel room as soon as possible.

During their conversations, Thuong also told Th. that he had worked with the relevant prosecutor’s office and the court on Tuan’s case and that she would have to pay VND30-100 million to officials who could help get Tuan a suspended sentence.

Th. recorded three of their conversations, including the following dialogues:

Thuong: Did you mind my behavior that day?

Th: I have forgotten it. Could you remind me of it?

Thuong: [I] held you in my arms…, perhaps two or three times, but you always resisted me…
…
Thuong: I think I overacted a bit… as you had yet to agree with me… Were you unpleased with my act?

On November 26, the Cam Pha Town police confirmed with the newspaper that the phone number 0915412xxx belongs to Thuong.