A Vietnamese court has sentenced a woman to 10 years in prison for selling eight Vietnamese women to Russia for up to US$500 each for prostitution.

>> Vietnam jails man for 7 years for selling woman to China brothel Le Thi Tham, 42, a native of the central province of Thua Thien-Hue who lives in Binh Duong province in the south, received the jail term on charges of “trafficking in women” pursuant to Article 119 of the Penal Code, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court said in her trial on Wednesday. According to the indictment, Tham tried to contact young women and lured them to Russia by lying to them that they would get well-paid jobs in restaurants there. In fact, Tham sold them to a woman in Russia and then that women would send them to restaurants to work as sex workers under the guise of acting as waitresses. In April 2012, Tham met Lan, a Vietnamese woman living in Russia, who later suggested that Tham seek and send young, beautiful Vietnamese women to Russia for Lan. When these women arrived in Russian, Lam would receive them and force them into prostitution at restaurants there. Lan paid Tham US$300-500 per woman successfully sent to Russia.  Lan also paid expenses on the trip to Russia for the women and would recover the cost by deducting it from their income when they began working in Russian restaurants. From November 2012 to February 2013, Tham sent eight women to Russia for Lan, earning VND30 million (US$1,405) in total. Some of the eight victims managed to contact their families in Vietnam and asked them to send money to Russia as ransom for them to be returned. When they came back to Vietnam, these victims reported Tham’s crime to police. At her trial the court ordered her to hand in the VND30 million she had earned illegally from her actions. For a similar offense, Pham Nguyen Anh Huy, a 21-year-old man in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, on December 12 received a seven-year sentence for selling a Vietnamese woman to a Chinese brothel for almost $900. The court also ordered that Huy pay VND30 million ($1,405) to H.T.V.T., the 19-year-old victim, as compensation.

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