Vietnam Charges Man With Rape After American Student Says She Was Pressured to Take Hush Money

Vietnamese authorities have charged a 23-year-old man with rape following allegations from 24-year-old American student Nguyen Thi Quynh Tam, whose account was documented in interviews, her police complaint, and communications with U.S. and Vietnamese officials, according to the Associated Press.

Tam says she was raped on July 5 during a group trip to a resort in Phu Tho province, near Hanoi. She had gone to Vietnam in May for a banking internship, hoping to reconnect with the country her family left when she was 5 years old. She joined a group of acquaintances on the July 4 holiday trip.

According to her account, Tam went to bed and found herself locked out of the room she expected to sleep in. She found another bedroom, left the door unlocked, and fell asleep. She woke up to the man kissing her neck.

Her complaint says she told him to stop, but he climbed on top of her, pinned her arms above her head, and raped her. She punched and shouted "No," according to her complaint. That night she messaged her boyfriend in the U.S. that she'd been raped. The AP reviewed those messages.

Tam said members of the travel group told her the man came from a wealthy, politically connected family, and she wasn't sure what to do. She said he apologized twice on July 9, once in a written note and once by phone. The AP reviewed a recording of that call and the note.

On July 11, Tam and family friends met with the man's father in a meeting arranged by members of the travel group. She says the father asked her how much money she wanted in exchange for not going to police. He called again five days later with another offer, she said.

The father told the AP by email that the two had been "intimate" but declined to comment further. He said his family had "no intention" of pressuring Tam to drop the case.

Tam says that after she reported the assault to police on July 21, officers took her back to the room where she said she was raped and asked her to reenact the assault, leaving her distraught. The next day, she said, police urged her to meet with the 23-year-old and sign a statement saying she had refused a rape kit and a lawyer. She refused. She said police again asked her to settle while she was receiving mental health care at a Hanoi hospital.

Tam, who is from Houston, Texas, said she got little help at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, where she was told she could report the matter to Vietnamese police or return home. She said she was discouraged when embassy staff cited a previous sexual assault case that dragged on for over a year before being dropped.

After Tam's father contacted their senator, Ted Cruz, the embassy called her to apologize. It told Cruz's office it had supported Tam and helped her contact authorities — a characterization her father called "inaccurate," according to a July 29 email exchange.

The State Department said it was aware of her case but couldn't comment further because of legal and privacy reasons, adding that American "safety and security" is its top priority.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said Thursday that authorities had initiated legal proceedings "in accordance with Vietnamese law." She did not answer AP questions about the alleged police pressure to settle.

The man charged in the case did not respond to AP requests for comment sent via social media.

Sexual violence is rarely discussed publicly in Vietnam, which is what makes Tam's decision to go on the record unusual. "I'm doing this not just for me. But for everybody else that has been harmed," she told the AP.

This case sits at an intersection of an American citizen abroad, a foreign justice system, and a wealthy, connected family accused of trying to buy silence. Wealthy and connected families pressuring victims into private settlements is a pattern seen in many countries, including the United States. That doesn't make it acceptable.

None of the wire coverage reviewed here — including CBS News, AsiaOne, and the regional outlets that ran the AP account — reports that the man has entered a plea or that a trial date has been set. What happens next depends on whether Vietnam's prosecution holds up under the same pressure Tam says already tried to derail it once.