Jealous Vietnamese woman gets 30 months for punishing female staff with centipede tattoos
Wednesday, August 27, 2014, 17:06 GMT+7
A Vietnam court on Tuesday sentenced a 36-year-old woman to 30 months in prison for forcing her female employee to have centipedes tattooed on her face and bosom as a warning for the latter’s alleged affair with the former’s husband in 2011. The convict, Nguyen Thi Anh was given the sentence on charges of “intentionally inflicting injury on or causing harm to the health of other persons,” pursuant to Article 104 of the Penal Code, said the People’s Court of the southern city of Vung Tau. The court also sentenced Anh’s employee accessory, Nguyen Thi Huong, 23, to two years in jail on the same charges. Anh is a local resident while Huong hails from the central province of Nghe An. The victim was Nguyen Thi Giang, 24, also from Nghe An, who were forced by Anh and Huong to have centipedes tattooed on her face and chest in November 2011. Catfight out of jealousy According to the indictment, Giang worked at a café owned by Anh in Vung Tau in 2008. During the time Giang worked there, Anh suspected that Giang had an affair with her 35-year-old husband, Pham The Phong. On November 26, 2011, Anh beat Giang, alleging that she had an affair with her husband even though the employee denied the accusation. The next day, the owner continued beating her employee, before insulting her and then shaving her head. The following day, Anh forced Giang to choose one of two punishments: having three centipedes tattooed on her face and bosom, or having acid splashed onto her face. Giang had no other choice but to choose the tattoos.
Later that day, Anh ordered Huong to take Giang to a local tattoo shop in Ward 2 to get the tattoos. The shop owner suggested tattoos of small centipedes for Giang but Huong refused them, and then chose the largest centipede samples for the victim. After the tattooing was completed, Huong took photos of the tattoos for reporting to Anh. Giang returned to Nghe An on November 28, 2011 and recounted her story to her mother, Tran Thi Hoa, who later reported to police in both Nghe An and Vung Tau.
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Victim waives complaints Anh and Huong were prosecuted after they were arrested in December 2011 on charges of “intentionally inflicting injury on or causing harm to the health of other persons” pursuant to Article 104 of the Penal Code and “humiliating other persons” under Article 121 of the same code. Before the case was brought to trial in 2012, the family of Anh paid VND400 million (US$18,900) in compensation to Giang, who later withdrew the complaint she had lodged against Anh and Huong. Then the Vung Tau City People’s Court decided to halt the case and suspend criminal prosecution against the two defendants. Considering such a suspension unlawful, the People’s Court of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, the locality that has Vung Tau as its provincial capital, on August 12, 2013 issued a decision to request the city’s police to re-investigate the case to bring the defendants to court. Although the victim had waived her complaint, the defendants would still be tried for their cruel acts, the provincial court said. However, as Giang continued not to file any complaint against Anh and Huong, the Vung Tau City People’s Procuracy finally charged them only with “intentionally inflicting injury on or causing harm to the health of other persons.” |
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