Vietnam punishes two guards over inmate pregnancy
HANOI - Prison authorities investigating the case of a woman on death row who became pregnant while in solitary confinement in northern Vietnam have arrested and suspended two warders responsible for guarding her, police said on Friday.
Bui Van Minh, deputy director of the Police Department for Hoa Binh province, said the officers at the Hoa Binh Detention Centre were arrested late last week ‘for violating the regulations’ and could face 15 years in jail if they are found to have been involved in the incident, which saw Nguyen Thi Oanh’s death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
‘According to our initial investigations, a male prisoner held in the same detention centre was the one who made Nguyen Thi Oanh pregnant with the help of these two officers,’ said Minh, who named the guards as Nguyen Thuyen and Bui Minh Quyet.
‘However, Mrs Oanh is still denying that the male prisoner is the father,’ he said.
Her attorney, Nguyen Hong Bach, said Thursday that his client hasn’t told him who the father is and that ‘the possibility that she was raped is not excluded.’
Oanh, sentenced to death in April for smuggling heroin, was found to be 11 weeks pregnant on September 15, the lawyer said, suggesting she conceived in late June.
Under Vietnamese law, the death sentence can’t be applied to pregnant women or women with children under 3.
Vietnamese prison authorities said they believe this case was the first of a woman on death row becoming pregnant.
Minh said there were suspicions that Oanh had deliberately tried to become pregnant to avoid being executed.
Oanh was originally arrested in October 2004 as she was travelling back to Hanoi from Hoa Binh province, about 100 kilometres south-west of the capital. Police quoted in the local newspaper Tuoi Tre said she was carrying 7 kilogrammes of heroin and 26 amphetamine tablets.
Bach said Oanh’s husband had already been imprisoned in Vinh Phuc province before his wife was sentenced.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 13, 2006.
Vietnam death row inmate pregnant
Two Vietnamese prison guards have been detained after a woman held in solitary confinement was discovered to be 11 weeks pregnant.
The woman, a 39-year-old convicted heroin trafficker, was being held on death row when she became pregnant.
Police say the father of the child is a fellow prisoner who delivered food to the prisoners on death row.
Under Vietnamese law, death sentences for pregnant women must be converted to life in prison.
'Abuse of power'
Nguyen Thi Oanh, who lost an appeal against her death sentence, was due to face a firing squad later this year.
She was convicted for possessing more than one billion dong ($63,000) of heroin.
A newspaper run by the country's police ministry said the two prison guards had been thrown out of the police force for "abusing their power" in allowing the fellow inmate to remain in the woman's cell.
Her lawyer, Le Van Kien, said it was the first time a prisoner on death row had become pregnant.
BBC News - October 13, 2006.
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