Conviction Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Cần Thơ, Vietnam · 2020

Vietnam: pagoda abbot sentenced to six years for raping a fourteen-year-old

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

abbot of a pagoda

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The defendant held religious authority as a pagoda abbot over a girl in the community he served, and that standing is what enabled him to take her away unaccompanied.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2020-02-01 · conviction and sentence

Ninh Kiều District People's Court, Cần Thơ, Vietnam. Huỳnh Minh Toàn, religious name Thích Phước Hoàng, abbot of a pagoda in Cao Lãnh, Đồng Tháp province, was convicted of raping a person under 16 after taking a 14-year-old girl on a trip and assaulting her at a hotel in Cần Thơ. He was sentenced to six years and ordered to pay 100 million VND in compensation, and was removed from his position as abbot.

Documented coercion mechanisms

religious standing as abbot over a girl in his community

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Sư trụ trì thừa nhận hiếp dâm bé gái 14 tuổi trong nhà nghỉ', Tiền Phong (Vietnam), 2020.: Vietnamese national newspaper reporting the abbot's conviction, sentence, compensation order, and removal from his post.

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