Reporter arrested for blackmailing illegal home builder

Knowing that Ms. H's project had construction violations, Hung asked for 20 million VND to not post the article.

On the afternoon of September 21, the Investigation Police Agency of Lien Chieu District Police (Da Nang City) announced that it had issued a decision to prosecute and temporarily detain Nguyen Manh Hung (from Thanh Chuong District, Nghe An), a reporter for Thoi Bao Lang Nghe Viet (Representative Office in Lien Chieu, Da Nang) for the crime of "extortion of property".

According to the initial investigation, from the beginning of August, when collecting information to write an article about: "construction order in the city", Hung discovered that Ms. DTMH. (residing in Lien Chieu district) had committed violations in construction works.

Hung at the investigation agency.

Hung asked for her phone number and proactively contacted Ms. H., introducing himself as a journalist and saying that the construction project had violations, and asked to meet to "resolve". Thinking that the journalist was not involved in the construction, Ms. H. did not meet. A few days later, Ms. H.'s project was administratively fined 7.5 million VND by the People's Committee of Lien Chieu District for structural violations that did not follow the design, and construction was temporarily suspended.

After that, Hung continued to contact Ms. H. to propose a meeting to discuss for her benefit. Seeing that she would be punished for not complying with Hung's request, Ms. H. accepted and arranged to meet Hung at the newspaper's representative office.

Here, Hung said he had written an article about Ms. H.'s violations and would publish it in the near future, and when the authorities intervened, the project would be demolished. Ms. H. asked Hung for help, but was asked to pay 10 million VND to not publish the article.

However, after discussing with her husband, Ms. H. did not agree. Ms. H. filed a complaint against Hung to the police. After that, Ms. H. was busy with housework and did not contact Hung. On August 18, an article appeared on the internet from Thoi bao Lang nghe Viet about the violations in Ms. H.'s project. After this article, the authorities did not intervene to handle this violation.

Hung continued to contact Ms. H. to discuss the possibility of publishing the unfavorable article, and asked Ms. H. to pay Hung 20 million VND to not publish the article. On September 14, Hung arranged to meet Ms. H. at 7 Nguyen Huu Tho (Hai Chau District) to receive the money.

Here, Hung forced Ms. H. to write a money transfer paper in a voluntary spirit to legalize the receipt of money. However, when he had just received the full amount of 20 million VND, the police raided and arrested him. Initially, Hung thought that receiving the money from Ms. H. was an information sponsorship contract. However, with concrete evidence, Hung admitted the incident and honestly reported.

According to PLO