Police in Kien Giang Province have been told to apologise to a sex worker and a man who may have been her customer for leaking their identities.
The information was given by Colonel Pham Trung Thanh, spokesman of the provincial Department of Police on February 1.
The police officer was reading loudly the names of the sex worker and her customer on January 29 (photo taken from the clip)
According to Colonel Thanh, the department instructed Phu Quoc District’s Police Department to set up a taskforce to investigate the case in which police of the local town of Duong Dong announced the private information of the two in public.
Earlier on the afternoon of January 29, a four-minute clip in which a police officer was reading loudly the names of the two while making them stand in public in front of many people went viral on the internet. He also mentioned clearly the fines for sex workers, people who use sex services as well as those who hold these services.
The police officer was identified to belong to Duong Dong town police in Phu Quoc District.
Many people disagreed with the behaviour of Duong Dong town’s police, saying that it was unacceptable and violated privacy rights.
Colonel Thanh has requested Dong Duong town’s police to find the sex worker and the man to apologise.
Thanh noted that to date only people who are thieves or had been involved in criminal incidents on the street could have their names published.
Colonel Bui Hoang Bao, former director of Hau Giang Province’s Department of Police, said that under Vietnamese laws, sex workers and their customers are only fined without their private information being announced in a public way.
