{"id":50342,"date":"2024-04-19T17:13:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T00:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/religious-leader-faces-new-charge-in-case-that-brought-5-year-sentence\/"},"modified":"2024-04-19T17:13:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T00:13:04","slug":"religious-leader-faces-new-charge-in-case-that-brought-5-year-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/religious-leader-faces-new-charge-in-case-that-brought-5-year-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious leader faces new charge in case that brought 5-year sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Investigators in southern Vietnam charged the 92-year-old leader of a Buddhist community with incest on Friday after gathering evidence \u2013 including blood samples \u2013 from members of the church, state media reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

Le Tung Van of the the Peng Lei House Buddhist Church in Long An province has <\/span>previously been at the center of allegations<\/span><\/a> of incest, fraud and abusing freedoms. In 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison for \u201cabusing democratic freedoms.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The provincial Security Investigation Agency said it launched the new case after receiving reports of Van\u2019s alleged incestuous behavior, according to the Vietnam News Agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new charge also comes a week after two of his defense lawyers were stripped of their membership in the Ho Chi Minh Bar Association \u2013 a decision they warned could precede new action against Van.<\/span><\/p>\n

An attorney who spoke anonymously to Radio Free Asia for security reasons said Van hasn\u2019t been required to serve the 2022 prison sentence due to his old age and frail health.<\/span><\/p>\n

The attorney added that the new charges announced on Friday were \u201cvague\u201d and appeared to use old evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Police forcibly collected DNA samples from members residing in the Peng Lei Buddhist House Church at least three times in 2021 and 2022, including one occasion where they obtained blood samples in the name of COVID-19 testing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Days after the church was searched in January 2022, authorities announced the \u201cabusing democratic freedoms\u201d charge against Van. He was accused of taking advantage of religion and philanthropy for their own personal benefit, according to the <\/span>U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Van was also charged with incest and fraud, but these charges were later dropped.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The complaint was reportedly made by the government-recognized Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, the state-backed religious entity, and a member of the Sangha\u2019s board of directors, according to the commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vietnam maintains strict laws on religious activity that require groups to be supervised by government-controlled management boards. The Peng Lei Buddhist House Church is an independent Buddhist community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Defense lawyers seek asylum<\/p>\n

Van was indicted in June 2022 after authorities accused him of directing other defendants to create videos and write an article that insulted Duc Hoa District Police and the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, according to the commission. The five-year sentence was issued the following month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Van has appealed his conviction and sentencing, and he\u2019s been under house arrest since then. Authorities have continued to investigate the incest allegations.<\/span><\/p>\n

In October 2022, one of Van\u2019s defense attorneys, Dang Dinh Manh, criticized the way that blood samples were taken from Van and his family members.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Samples should adhere to criminal procedural regulations and medical standards and the consent of the individuals or their legal guardians should be obtained, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Van\u2019s lawyers have also criticized authorities for preventing them from meeting with Van and other accused church members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, Dang Dinh Manh and two other defense attorneys for the church \u2013 Nguyen Van Mieng and Dao Kim Lan \u2013 <\/span>sought political asylum in the United States<\/span><\/a> after they received a police summons related to accusations of \u201cabusing democratic freedoms\u201d during their legal defense of Van and the church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, the Ho Chi Minh Bar Association announced its decision to revoke the membership of Dang Dinh Manh and Nguyen Van Mieng for not paying fees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both lawyers told RFA last week that the decision could pave the way for authorities to take new action in their investigation of the members of Peng Lei Buddhist House Church.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

RFA\u2019s attempts to contact Long An Police at the provided phone number went unanswered on Friday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, RFA was unable to reach anyone from the Peng Lei Buddhist House Church to verify Friday\u2019s state media reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Matt Reed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tin t\u1eeb RFA Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investigators in southern Vietnam charged the 92-year-old leader of a Buddhist community with incest on Friday after gathering evidence \u2013 including blood samples \u2013 from members of the church, state media reported. Le Tung Van of the the Peng Lei House Buddhist Church in Long An province has previously been at the center of allegations …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,239],"tags":[246,251],"class_list":["post-50342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","category-vietnam","tag-english","tag-rfa"],"yoast_head":"\nReligious leader faces new charge in case that brought 5-year sentence - VietValley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vietvalley.com\/religious-leader-faces-new-charge-in-case-that-brought-5-year-sentence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religious leader faces new charge in case that brought 5-year sentence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Investigators in southern Vietnam charged the 92-year-old leader of a Buddhist community with incest on Friday after gathering evidence \u2013 including blood samples \u2013 from members of the church, state media reported. 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