Porn viewers held under stiff penal code
Hanoi - As part of an ongoing crackdown on "social evils", 60 men were arrested in two raids on cafés showing pornographic films in southern Vietnam, police said on Thursday.
The owners and employees of the two cafés in Ho Chi Minh city could face a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted of "circulating pornographic information" under communist Vietnam's strict penal code.
Police seized a total of 10 pornographic videos from the cafés on Tuesday, and sent the arrested customers for "education" with their neighbourhood People's Committees, said a policeman involved in the arrest.
One of the cafés in the city's southern economic hub had been struggling to attract customers in the two months since it opened. So the owners decided to show hour-long porn films twice a day, explained a police officer.
"It was very brazen of them to show such films at a time when city authorities are putting closer supervision on cafés and karaoke bars," the policeman said.
Vietnam's communist government has been increasing its tight rein on "social evils", including gambling, prostitution and drug abuse. Earlier in November, Ho Chi Minh City authorities shut down a gay massage parlour, and several nightclubs have also been closed.
Sapa-DPA (za) - November 21, 2002.
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