News

December 16, 2001

2 face federal charges in Vietnam protest

Federal authorities have charged two people with conspiring to assault the deputy prime minister of Vietnam after one of them brandished a cigarette lighter and two gasoline-soaked sticks during a speaking engagement last week.

Dang Nguyen and Coung Anh Pham were arrested Thursday at a meeting of the Viet Nam Business Leaders delegation in San Francisco, where Deputy Prime Minister Dzung Nguyen was speaking.

Dang Nguyen was trying to light the sticks, which were wrapped in cloth, when she was subdued by State Department security officers, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Dang Nguyen told authorities that she planned to disrupt the conference and bring attention to her anti-communist cause by setting herself on fire. In her bag, authorities found a one-gallon plastic container partially filled with gasoline.

The two, who said they traveled to the conference from Paris, were arraigned in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Friday. They are being held without bail. They could face five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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