The family of a man who allegedly killed himself while in custody in the southern province of Binh Duong asked local police to investigate his death on Thursday.

 

According the records of Ben Cat District’s People’s Procuracy, an office of prosecutors in Vietnam, last Thursday Nguyen Cong Nhut, 33, was invited to the district’s police station for an investigation into the loss of 56 tires at Kumho Tire Co. Ltd., where he was working as head of product storage.

 

Four days later, at around 6 a.m. Nhut was found hanging with mobile phone’s battery charger wire from a window in police’s room.

 

Ngo Thi Ngoc Thanh, chief of the People’s Procuracy, said an autopsy showed that Nhut died from strangulation.

 

Meanwhile, police gave Nhut’s family his four-page suicide note where he said he was responsible for the loss of between 6,000 and 7,000 tires since 2008. This would lead to a jail term of between 15-20 years. Nhut did not want to face the jail time and was suffering many diseases so he killed himself, according to the note.

 

However, his wife, 30-year-old Nguyen Thi Thanh Tuyen, said the letter’s writing was different from Nhut’s.

 

In her emails to the press, Tuyen, who also works at Kumho Tire, sent two sections of a recorded tape where a man asked her “to go to a hotel” with him and sell their land piece to save her husband.

 

Tuyen said the man, who kept calling her, claimed to be named Phu and in charge of investigating the case in which Nhut was involved.

 

Pham Xuan Truong, chief of Binh Duong police’s office, said after the investigation into Nhut’s death is concluded, the people involved will be punished.

 

He added that Nhut was taken into administrative custody, not criminal custody, meaning that he was not put under strict restriction.

 

“So, it’s not hard for the victim to get the mobile phone’s battery charger wire,” Truong said.

 

Meanwhile, in response to Tuyen’s claim that she was not allowed to see her husband while he was in custody, Thanh said her office did not know about it and that they would investigate it, if the family required.

 

Investigations into the case are ongoing.