VietNamNet Bridge – At 11am on August 8, the police allegedly caught in the act reporter Vo Thanh Tung, 31, with pen name Duy Dong of the HCM City Law Newspaper, of taking money from a bar owner at the restaurant of a hotel in Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai province.

On the evening of the same day, a senior police official confirmed the arrest but refused to provide further information because the case is still under investigation.

According to an employee of the restaurant where the arrest took place, Tung was arrested after he received a wad of US dollars from the bar owner. "After checking the money, the police handcuffed Tung and another man named Tai," said the witness.

At about 2pm, Tung was brought home in a village of Vinh Cuu district, Dong Nai province for a search that ended at 5.30pm. Tung’s neighbors said while the police were searching Tung’s home, a man named Minh drove a motorcycle to the house. Seeing the police, he ran away but the man was quickly controlled and handcuffed by police officers.

The police seized an electric whip, an electric gun, a handcuff, a chain sticks, six paperboard boxes of documents, a computer, a camera, etc at Tung’s house.

According to Tuoi Tre Online, the men named Tai and Minh who were arrested together with Tung are the collaborators who helped Tung make a series of investigating reports. Before the arrest, Tung’s series of investigation reports were published on the HCM City Law Newspaper. The most recent investigating reports are about the violations of bars in Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces.

Mr. Pham Phu Tam, Chief Editor of the HCM City Law Newspaper, told Tuoi Tre Online in the evening of August 7 that the newspaper had not received any official information on the arrest from the police.

Tam said the Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper would soon contact with and cooperate with the authorities to clarify the case of reporter Vo Thanh Tung.

Mai Lan