Man arrested for beating pregnant wife

Bui Thi Tuyet Giao, 36, showed up unannounced at her parent’s house in Hon Dat District of Kien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta on the night of May 10.

Giao, who is seven months pregnant, returned home panicking, covered in scars and wounds.

She told her family that her husband, Tran Van Luan, 37, a native of northern Hai Duong Province, had assaulted her for a long time and banned her from telling anyone.

Encouraged by her family, Giao filed a report with the police about the attacks.

Bui Thi Tuyet Giao with the scars and wounds on her face and body. Photos courtesy of Giao

“My husband forced me to borrow money from anyone I knew. If I could get the money then it was fine, but if I couldn’t, he would beat and insult me,” she said.

“He usually used the wire of an electric cooker and his belt to hit and tie me up; he also tortured me with metal clothes hangers, which he heated on a gas oven and pressed on my body.”

After getting married three years ago, Giao and Luan moved to his hometown where they run a restaurant and have a 17-month-old son.

Since then, Giao has not been able to visit her parents. Instead, she says her life has been a constant round of calling people to borrow money at her husband’s request. Due to Covid-19 and financial issues, her
parents could not arrange to visit her in Hai Duong, nearly 2,000 km away.

She said she has borrowed more than VND100 million (US$4,250) from different people.

On the day she ran away, she and her husband were in Ho Chi Minh City to meet with people and borrow money again.

“At first, when we arrived in the city, I did not have any plan of running away. But when I could not borrow the money, he threatened to kill everyone. I just couldn’t take it anymore,” said Giao.

Tran Van Luan at a police station in Kim Thanh District of Hai Duong Province, May 21, 2023. Photo by police

Tran Thi Mam, Giao’s mother, said her daughter came back home with a face full of scars and a body bruised from beatings.

“We only knew that her husband had forced her to borrow the money when she returned home,” the mother said.

Police in Kien Giang Province have asked their colleagues in Hai Duong to verify details of the case. Police in Hai Duong summoned Luan on Sunday.

Luan said that he believed his wife was having an affair so he had beaten her with a belt and a comb, including during her pregnancy, but he denied using heated metal hangers on her.

Giao has been invited back to Hai Duong for an injury assessment and to give further evidence.