The central Quang Nam Province People’s Court has sentenced a woman to 20 years in jail for selling a woman and three teen girls to China for prostitution.  At the trial opened on Wednesday for Nguyen Sa Ry, 47, who were charged with human trafficking and child trafficking, the court sentenced her to 11 years in jail on the first charge and nine years in prison for the second. As such, Ry, a woman of Tri Ton District, southern An Giang Province, has to serve a total of 20 years in jail.

All the victims are of Khmer ethnic group in the district, comprising Neáng Ray, 32, Neáng Khơ Na, 16, Dương Neáng Linh, 15, and Neáng Dane, 16.         According to the indictment, Ry told these people that she was able to help them find work as café attendants in Ho Chi Minh City with a salary at VND5 million (US$240) per month. However, after her victims agreed to her suggestion, Ry took all of them on a coach to Mong Cai Town in the northern Quang Ninh Province, which borders China, on July 20, 2013. On the way, the coach stopped at an eatery in Thang Binh District, central Quang Nam province, and the district police, who were acting on a tip-off from locals, seized Ry.  Ry said if she had not been arrested, she would have sold the victims to a woman named Ha in Mong Cai, who would have taken them to China and sold them to brothels. Ry told investigators that she committed three other human trafficking cases in An Giang from May to July 2013 and successfully sold four young women, all in Tri Ton, to China. As Ry committed these crimes in An Giang, police in Quang Nam have referred the case to their counterparts in An Giang for handling.