Jul 27, 2007, 5:59 GMT
Hanoi, July 27, 2007 - A court in southern Vietnam sentenced a Taiwanese man, his Vietnamese wife and four others to prison for running a human trafficking ring that sold young women into prostitution and forced marriage in Malaysia, a court official said Friday.
Tsai I Hsien, 46, was sentenced to seven years in prison and his Vietnamese wife, Tran Thi My Phuong, was sentenced to 12 years by the Ho Chi Minh City People's court Thursday, according to the court's chief judge Nguyen Duc Sau.
The couple were convicted of human trafficking for sending at least 126 Vietnamese women to Malaysia after promising to find them foreign husbands.
Once in Malaysia, the young women were sold for around 2,000 dollars each and forced to work as prostitutes or to marry elderly or disabled men, according to Vietnamese media.
Four other Vietnamese involved in the ring received sentences of between five and 10 years in prison.
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