Two to be prosecuted for purportedly trafficking child at Hanoi pagoda

March 23, 2015 | 09:13

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Police in Hanoi have suggested the local People’s Procuracyprosecuted two women for alleged child trafficking that investigations have showed took place at a pagoda.

The two that face prosecution are Nguyen Thi Thanh Trang, a 36-year-old Hanoian, and Pham Thi Nguyet, 45, hailing from the northern province of Ninh Binh.

Police officers launched an investigation in July last year after receiving a letter from a Hanoi resident, Nguyen Thanh Long, who said his godson was trafficked at Bo De Pagoda in Long Bien District.

Long said in the letter that the pagoda had illegally sold his godson Cu Nguyen Cong, whom he often called Lai, to other people.

Through investigation, police officers concluded that Cong, born on October 25, 2013, was the son of Tran Thi Thu Ha from the northern province of Phu Tho and Vu Xuan Truong from the northern province of Tuyen Quang.

Cong died of measles in June 2014, according to news websiteVnExpress.

Ha and Truong lived together as husband and wife and the woman had an unwanted pregnancy, according to police probes.

So after Cong was born, they sent him to the pagoda so that he could be nurtured there.

Trang, who worked as a nursemaid at the pagoda then, took Cong out of Bo De and sold him to Nguyet for VND35 million (US$1,645) in January 2014, according to investigators.

They will sit behind bars for three to 10 years if convicted.

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