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HANOI, Vietnam – An acupuncturist who claims she can detect a man's
virginity based on a small dot on the ear has become a minor celebrity
in Vietnam, where she is credited with helping to free three convicted
rapists from prison.
Traditional medicine
practitioner Pham Thi Hong started lobbying for the men's release,
pleading their case all the way to the president, because she believes
all three men are virgins and therefore could not be guilty of rape.
"They
all had small red spots on the back of their ears," said Hong, 54. "The
spots should have disappeared if they had had sex. My many years of
experience told me that these men did not have sex before."
Her
claims are unusual even for a country where acupuncture and traditional
medicine are still common remedies, but Hong's determination to have
the case reopened — even threatening to light herself on fire — led to
prosecutors re-examining the case. The convictions eventually were
suspended due to flaws by initial investigators.
"Thanks
to her efforts, investigators revisited the case which otherwise could
have been buried," said Nong Thi Hong Ha, a lawyer for one of the freed
men.
Hong says she discovered the spot on
Nguyen Dinh Kien's ear the first time he visited her for treatment four
years ago. He was brought to the hospital from prison, where he was
serving a 16-year sentence after being convicted of gang raping a
20-year-old woman in 2000.
After seeing the
spot on Kien's ear, Hong believed his insistence that he was innocent.
She later examined his two alleged accomplices and began a campaign for
their release. Eventually, President Nguyen Minh Triet ordered that the
case be re-examined.
Investigators who
revisited the case discovered flaws, including the fact that
testimonies of witnesses indicating their innocence were not included
in the case's files, according to the local Pioneer newspaper. The
three men, having served 10 years in jail, were released in January.
Vietnamese newspapers have dedicated profiles to Hong and her
virginity test,
crediting her with helping to free the men while not expressing any
skepticism of her ability. Earlier this week, she went on an online
chat on Pioneer newspaper where readers expressed their "great
admiration" for her efforts.
She says she was
first taught how to determine if a man has ever had sex by feeling
their pulse. She later developed the ear-spot method on her own. She
says the spot will only disappear after heterosexual intercourse and is
not affected by gay sex or masturbation.
"I
never thought that one day I would use this method to help the three
men prove their innocence," said Hong, while treating a patient in her
home on the outskirts of Hanoi.
Her
virgin-detecting claims have drawn skepticism from other traditional
medicine practitioners, who work with needles, herbs and other methods
using centuries-old techniques to manipulate energy, or chi, in the
body.
"I have never heard of this method
before," said Nguyen Van Hao, 60, an acupuncturist who has practiced
for 14 years. "From the medical point of view, it's impossible to
determine whether a man has had sex or not by feeling the pulse or
examining the red spot on their ears."
Hong, however, said she's convinced her method works after
years of testing it on her students.
Hong says her reputation has now prompted other convicted
rapists to seek her help in appealing their cases.
"I'm
not planning to launch a campaign to clear innocent people who were
falsely convicted of rape," she said. "But I'm willing to help people
to prove their innocence, if they really are."
