Convicted murderer stabs wife to death during conjugal visit at Vietnam prison

A convicted murderer in central Vietnam is being investigated for killing his wife while she was paying a conjugal visit to the prison he was being held in.

A police report said that Nhu Van Duc, who is already serving 17 years for murder, was visited by his wife and two children on Tuesday.

After sending his children away to buy water, he is alleged to have stabbed his wife to death before trying to take his own life.

His children alerted the guards.

It has remained unclear how Duc got the knife. Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported that he grabbed it from his wife, who brought it in for peeling fruit.

Duc is receiving treatment at a hospital under police surveillance.

Duc, 48, was convicted of murder in Ho Chi Minh City in 2014 for fatally stabbing his neighbor following an argument, according to Tuoi Tre.

The prison in Binh Thuan and another in the northern province of Bac Giang are among the few that allow private reunions between male prisoners and their families in Vietnam. 

Last October, the Ministry of Public Security said it was drafting a rule to allow all inmates to meet their spouses in private rooms.

It is not clear if the latest death in Binh Thuan will force them to rethink the idea.