Vietnamese refugee is charged with torture
GARDEN GROVE - A Vietnamese refugee could be deported if convicted of torturing prisoners over 20 years ago at a communist re-education camp.
Thi Dinh Bui, 61, is accused of starving, beating and torturing prisoners at the Thanh Cam camp near Hanoi after the Vietnam War, The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
He was taken into federal custody Thursday and will remain without bond in a detention center near San Pedro pending a court hearing.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been investigating Bui for three years, since camp survivors identified him as a camp enforcer.
He cannot be criminally prosecuted in the United States because Congress didn't make torture outside of the country a crime until 1994. He could be deported if convicted.
Bui has lived in Orange County since 1994 when he came to the U.S. with his family.
UPI - August 09, 2003.
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