Approximately three weeks after Vietnamese investigative journalist, Le Hoang Hung, died following an arson attack, the journalist’s wife, Tran Thi Thuy Lieu, confessed to the murder, according to local news reports in Vietnam.
Vietnamese police reportedly said yesterday that Lieu confessed that she poured petrol on her husband while he was sleeping and set him on fire. Police also confirmed that Lieu had a one million Vietnamese Dong (VND) debt (approx. 35,000 Euro) as a result of her gambling in Cambodia. The Vietnamese daily Tuổi Trẻ (“Youth”) reported that a few months before his death, the journalist had bought a life insurance with a payout of one billion VND.
The crime scene also appeared to have been faked; among other clues, police noted that a rope hanging from the window, indicating that an assailant may have climbed in from outside, could not have been tied to the balcony without help from inside the journalist’s apartment.
Hung, a reporter with the Nguoi Lao Dong daily newspaper, died on 30 January in a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, where he was brought following the 19 January arson attack.
The International Press Institute (IPI) congratulated Vietnam’s police for their prompt investigation into the journalist’s murder, which many feared may have been linked to his investigative reporting.
*** Original statement follows
Vietnamese Journalist Dies as a Consequence of Arson Attack
IPI Director Calls on Vietnam Authorities to Strongly Condemn Such Attacks, in Particular when Aimed at Silencing Journalists
By Barbara Trionfi, Press Freedom Adviser
Vienna, 1 February 2011: A Vietnamese journalist who was set on fire in the night of 19 January, died on Saturday as a consequence of severe burns, media sources said.
The wife of Le Hoang Hung, a reporter with the Nguoi Lao Dong daily newspaper, said that an unidentified attacker entered their house while Hung was sleeping, doused him with chemicals and set him on fire.
Hung’s wife said she ran to him as she heard him screaming in the middle of the night, she poured water on him to extinguish the fire and brought him to a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. The doctor who treated him said the journalist was in stable condition, but had third-degree burns covering about 20 per cent of his body, which could lead to life-threatening complications.
About ten days later, in the early afternoon of 30 January, Hung passed away in the hospital.
Offering her sincerest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Le Hoang Hung, IPI Acting Director Alison Bethel McKenzie called for a swift investigation into Hung’s murder.
“Vietnam’s authorities must bring the perpetrators of this attack to justice and show that they will not be tolerated, in particular if they are aimed at silencing a journalist and thereby preventing the people from enjoying their right to information about issues of public concern,” Bethel McKenzie said.
According to local news sources in Vietnam, Hung had been covering the southern Mekong Delta for the newspaper for nearly 10 years. In his articles, he dealt with issues related to local corruption and crime. He recently wrote about alleged official wrongdoing at the southern Long An province Market Control Department, and trans-border smuggling, the news website VietNamNet Bridge reported. According to the BBC, the attack took place the evening before Hung was due to cover a court case in which a local authority in Long An was being sued for alleged illegal appropriation of land.
