Kiwi police in Vietnam amid Wellington sexual assault case investigation

Prime Minister Chris Luxon with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính in Hanoi. Photo / Pool Giles Dexter

• Police ‘have no doubt’ two Vietnamese officials indecently assaulted a pair of Wellington waitresses, but cannot charge them.
• Police identified the suspects, but they had left the country, and no extradition treaty exists.
• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says NZ Police were in Vietnam last week investigating the case.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has revealed New Zealand Police were in Vietnam a week ago, investigating sexual assault allegations made against Vietnamese Government officials last year.

It appears the investigators have since returned home but, speaking to media in Ho Chi Mihn City last night, Luxon said there had been good cooperation between New Zealand and Vietnamese authorities.

“I have real sympathy for the victims back home and the bottom line is very simple: Anyone coming to New Zealand needs to respect our laws. Anyone.”

In December last year, Police said they had “no doubt” that two Vietnamese officials sexually attacked two young female servers at a Wellington restaurant in March last year.

The officials - from Vietnam’s Public Security Ministry, a police agency in the country - were in New Zealand visiting the Royal New Zealand Police College.

Stuff reported that then-19-year-old Ali Cook and her co-worker were on a wait shift at Saigon Restaurant on Wellington’s Willis St when the alleged assaults occurred.

She said the officials were “pulling us into their laps, pinning us against the wall” during their shift.

It is claimed the officials had plied the waitresses with alcohol and that both women woke the next day with cuts to their nipples but could not remember how they suffered the injuries.

“Police have no doubt these two women were indecently assaulted by two men while working, and had these men still been in New Zealand we would have pursued criminal charges,” Detective Inspector John Van Den Heuvel said in a statement.

However, New Zealand has no extradition treaty with Vietnam and, as such, Police were “unable to commence extradition proceedings, and as such no charges were laid”.

Police were, however, “exploring all available options”.

Last night, Luxon said he was not able to provide much detail on the status of the investigation: “For me to make public comments on that while we have an independent on-going investigation would prejudice that case”.

But he did say he was “comfortable we have good levels of engagement between both systems”.

He could not say how close Police were to coming to the end of the investigation.

“Police have some work to do to continue to make the case and to build that with their counterparts here.

“Even up until the end of last week, our police were actively meeting here in Vietnam together.”

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers had said extradition needed to be explored, and preparing an extradition file is the next step in progressing this matter.

“We have had positive engagement with Vietnamese officials to date, and I am confident that will continue.”

In December, Cook told the Associated Press she had urged New Zealand authorities to ask Vietnam’s government to return the men to face prosecution.

“If they choose to give up now on this case, it’s setting a devastating precedent that it’s okay to commit sex crimes in New Zealand as long as you can leave,” she said.