Reporter burned to death, wife arrested - The wife of a Vietnamese investigative journalist, who died after being set on fire, has been arrested for..

Reporter burned to death, wife arrested

The wife of a Vietnamese investigative journalist, who died after being set on fire, has been arrested for murdering her husband.

Tran Thuy Lieu, the wife of Le Hoang Hung, 51, an investigative journalist with the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper, has been in police custody since Sunday.

According to state media, police investigations showed that Tran, 40, had gambled frequently and had been arguing with her husband over money.

She was brought to a police station where she aconfessed to killing Hung, said Lt. Col. Pham Van Tien, chief investigator of Long An provincial police.

Media groups had earlier expressed fears that Le had been killed for his reporting of official wrongdoing.

Le, who had been investigating smuggling rackets and corruption, was doused with petrol and set on fire while he slept in an attack at his home on 19 January.

He died Jan. 29 after 10 days of treatment for third-degree burns covering 20 percent of his body.

According reports Tran had gambling debts of up to US$47,000 (RM144,122) traced to 22 trips to Cambodia in December.

The Local media has also reported that she had urged her husband to sell their house in Tan An town but Le did not agree to the idea.

Describing the incident at the time of the attack, Vietnam's Dantri.com had quoted Tran, as saying: "The whole family was sleeping, and all of a sudden I heard my husband screaming ."

"Just then, he smashed through the door with his body fully engulfed in flames. We rushed to get water to throw on him in an attempt to put out the fire."


Source: Agencies

Published Feb 24 2011


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