A number of Vietnamese judges have been attacked, threatened, and anonymously denounced over the last several years.
Judge Nguyen Thi Kim Loan, a member of the civil court of the People’s Court of Dong Da District in Hanoi, became a victim when she was attacked with acid on the street after delivering a verdict.
Consequently, her face was disfigured, and she has undergone 41 surgeries to restore her former looks.
Even after disturbing incidents like this, court officials have not been adequately protected by a special regulation or a special force.
A painful day
It was nine years ago when Loan suffered the horrific attack while she was on her way from home to school.
A man approached her on the street and threw a mug of acid on her face.
“I felt that I could die from the incredible pain and the deforming of my face caused by the acid,” Loan shared.
“I have gone through 41 operations to restore the shape of my face since then.
“But I haven’t given up,” she said in a talk with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper at her house on Doi Can Street in Hanoi.
Pointing up to the lean-to in her small front garden, she explained that it shields the sunlight because “direct contact with it will make the injuries on my face darker.”
Loan recalled that the accident was a surprise to her, because the perpetrator had not displayed any sign of hatred or possibility of taking revenge.
The perpetrator, who was also the plaintiff in the case, did not even ask the court for a different judge, Loan added. After the trial, the plaintiff even thanked the judging panel for letting him express his ideas.
After losing the trial, the plaintiff, Nguyen Tien Dung, colluded with another man, Pham Ngoc Hai, to organize the acid attack in 2005.
The two men were later sentenced to 14 years each in prison for the crime.
Loan confirmed that she had never cried from pain during treatment, although doctors warned that her face might become even more ‘distorted’ thanks to the straining of muscles and tendons due to scarring.
She said she had strong confidence that she would recover.
“However, I burst out crying when my little daughter couldn’t recognize her mother at the hospital,” Loan said.
“After I had been in the hospital for many days, my two-year old daughter was allowed to visit, but she didn’t know me.
“It made me feel deep pain,” and Loan confessed that she cried a lot afterwards.
Practicing how to smile and speak at 50
Loan’s face has been 90 percent restored through numerous operations. She said this has been achieved not only through investing money and suffering pain, but also through her patient therapy.
“I’ve never stopped training for a single day over the past nine years,” she noted. “I practiced in from early in the morning until midnight.”
“After the acid attack, my face was lopsided. It has improved significantly since then. Almost all of the flesh and skin on my face was transplanted.”
Every day, Loan has to practice smiling, chewing, and knitting her brows so that she can feel the movements of the muscles on her face.
She said she should have gone back to work a year ago, but this would leave her with less time to practice and massage her face, which could cause it to become lopsided again.
However, Loan said she will continue to pursue her career as a judge after fully recovering from the attack, even though it is a dangerous job.
During her treatment period, Loan registered to pursue her law courses and obtained her master’s degree.
In her master’s thesis, she discussed the ways other countries protect judges after they leave their office. She hopes Vietnamese judges will be better protected in the future.
“Being a judge is clearly a dangerous career, and in Vietnam judges are alone in defending themselves,” Loan concluded.
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Đăng ký: VietNam News