HANOI, Vietnam — Authorities in Vietnam have charged a 23-year-old man with rape after an American student spoke out about being sexually assaulted while on a group vacation.
The 24-year-old student, Nguyen Thi Quynh Tam, stated that she was assaulted on July 5 and subsequently faced intense pressure from both the suspect's wealthy family and local police to settle the matter privately instead of pursuing criminal charges. While media outlets typically do not identify individuals who report sexual assault, Tam chose to speak publicly in a country where sexual violence is rarely discussed, hoping her openness would help protect others. "I'm doing this not just for me. But for everybody else that has been harmed," she said.
Tam's journey back to Vietnam began in May, when she arrived for a banking internship to reconnect with her family's homeland, which she had left at the age of 5 when her family immigrated to the United States. Now living in Houston, Texas, Tam joined a group of acquaintances for a trip to a resort in Phu Tho, located near Hanoi, on July 4.
According to Tam's account, which is documented in her official police complaint, text messages, and communications with both U.S. and Vietnamese officials, the group stayed up late into the night. When she finally went to bed, she found herself locked out of the room where she had planned to sleep. She eventually found an alternative bedroom and fell asleep with the door unlocked.
Tam woke up to find the 23-year-old man kissing her neck. Her complaint details that she told the man not to touch her, fought back by pushing and punching him, and repeatedly shouted "No!" However, the man pinned her arms above her head and raped her. Later that night, she sent messages to her boyfriend in the United States stating that she had been raped, messages that have been reviewed by reporters.
Afterward, she said she blamed herself and struggled mentally. Others in the group they traveled with told her the man was from a wealthy, politically connected family and she was unsure what to do. On July 9, the suspect apologized to Tam twice—once in a written note and once during a recorded phone call.
On July 11, at the suggestion of members of their travel group, Tam and some family friends met with the suspect's father. Tam reported that the father asked how much money she wanted to avoid involving the police. He called her again five days later, on July 16, to repeat the offer of financial compensation. In an email to The Associated Press, the father said the two had been "intimate," but he declined to comment further. He said his family had "no intention" of pressuring Tam to drop the case.
Tam officially reported the rape to the police on July 21. She described the subsequent police response as deeply distressing, noting that officers took her back to the resort room and forced her to reenact the assault. "A part of me is gone. And it's in that room," Tam said.
The following day, police allegedly pressured Tam to meet with her attacker and urged her to sign a statement declaring she had refused a lawyer and a rape kit, which she refused to do. Even while she was receiving mental health treatment at a hospital in Hanoi, officers continued to ask her to settle the matter privately.
Frustrated by the local response, Tam sought assistance from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi but reported receiving little help initially. Embassy staff told her she could either report the incident to Vietnamese police or go home, and discouraged her by citing a previous sexual assault case that had dragged on for more than a year before being dropped.
After Tam's father reached out to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the embassy contacted Tam to apologize. While the embassy told Cruz's office that it had supported Tam and assisted her in contacting local authorities, Tam's father disputed this claim, calling it "inaccurate" in a July 29 email exchange. The U.S. State Department acknowledged awareness of the case but declined to provide specific details due to legal and privacy considerations, stating only that the safety and security of American citizens remain its top priority.
On Thursday, officials confirmed that the 23-year-old suspect had been charged. Pham Thu Hang, a spokesperson for Vietnam's foreign ministry, confirmed that authorities had initiated legal proceedings "in accordance with Vietnamese law," though she did not address the allegations of police pressure. The charged man did not respond to inquiries sent via social media.
