Dismissal of Deputy Head of the Investigation Police Agency of Ca Mau Provincial Police

On November 28, news from Ca Mau Province Police said that in connection with the case of a 13-year-old girl being sexually abused leading to her suicide, two police officers in this province have been dismissed.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Public Security has decided to dismiss Lieutenant Colonel Tran Hong Loc - Deputy Head of the Provincial Police Investigation Agency and Lieutenant Colonel Do Tan Dat - Team Leader, Intermediate Investigator.

In addition, the two police officers mentioned above were also warned by the Party and transferred from the investigation agency.

Mr. Loc and Mr. Dat were dismissed from their positions for the reason that they proposed to suspend the investigation into the case of a 13-year-old girl named HMK (living in Tan Loc commune, Thoi Binh district, Ca Mau province) who was molested by Mr. Huu Be many times without finding any evidence to prove the case.

Following the direction of the Government, the People's Committee of Ca Mau province directed the provincial police to urgently investigate the case of a 13-year-old girl being molested.

In 2016, Mr. Loc and Mr. Dat were assigned to investigate the case of HMK's family (born 2004, 5th grade student) accusing Mr. Huu Be (K.'s neighbor) of sexually abusing the child.

However, after several months of investigation, Mr. Loc and Mr. Dat were said to have found no evidence to prove the incident, so they proposed to suspend the investigation of the case.

On the afternoon of February 10, 2017, K. was found unconscious in her bedroom by her family, so they took her to Ca Mau General Hospital for emergency treatment. At around 6:00 a.m. on February 11, K. died at the hospital.

Later, the family discovered that K. had left behind a suicide note written on a student’s notebook with the following content: “I cannot die in peace if this matter is not resolved.” The letter also mentioned that K. had been repeatedly seduced into sexual relations by Mr. Huu Be.

Ms. HTL (K.'s mother) and her family said that before this heartbreaking incident, the family had reported to the authorities that K. had been sexually abused many times by a neighbor named Huu Be. However, the Ca Mau Provincial Police Department decided not to prosecute the case because they considered it unfounded.

K.'s grandmother said that before committing suicide, K. told her that "because of him, the family was humiliated in front of the neighbors", but she did not expect her grandson to do such a foolish thing.

In April 2017, Minister and Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung signed a document conveying the Prime Minister's instructions to the Ministry of Public Security and the People's Committee of Ca Mau province, requesting an urgent investigation into the case of HMK being repeatedly sexually abused.

Afterwards, the investigation police agency of Ca Mau Provincial Police decided to cancel the decision not to prosecute the criminal case to continue investigating and verifying according to the provisions of law.

In September 2017, Ca Mau Provincial Police decided to prosecute the case and temporarily detain Mr. Huu Be to investigate and clarify the act of "Child molestation".

In November 2017, Ca Mau Provincial Police completed the investigation and transferred the case file to the People's Procuracy at the same level to propose prosecuting Mr. Huu Be.

According to Dan Tri