Death Row Inmate Caught 42 Years After Prison Break

A fugitive who successfully fled death row was finally recaptured by authorities last week after spending 42 years in hiding.

Vo Van Ba, a death row inmate, broke out of prison in October 1980 while awaiting his execution, after being convicted of rape and murder in 1977. While awaiting his penalty, he was imprisoned in Hau Giang, a province in southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region.

According to Ba, who was arrested on Friday, he lived in the nearby Kien Giang province for more than a year after his escape. He then moved to Ca Mau province, a 3-hour drive away, where he would settle down for the next few decades. There, he changed his name, got married, and even had a child.

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In 2013, he moved to Dong Nai province, near the capital Ho Chi Minh City, with his family to work as brick kiln workers.

It’s unclear how authorities managed to track down Ba after so many years. His arrest comes just weeks after police caught another fugitive who had also spent more than a decade on the run.

In November, Nguyen Van Hung, a 40-year-old fugitive who was wanted for assault, was finally arrested by the police after spending 17 years dodging his arrest warrant. For a decade, he lived under his brother’s name, after the siblings falsified their names and birth years in identity documents to shield Hung from detection. Hung and his brother’s plot only came to light when authorities realized that the number of siblings in their family did not tally with official records.

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In July last year, another death row inmate, convicted of murder and robbery in 2015,  successfully escaped Chi Hoa Prison, located in Ho Chi Minh city and considered one of the country’s most secure facilities. He was recaptured by Ho Chi Minh City police two days after his escape.

Known as the top executioner in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has received increased scrutiny from the international community in recent years for its use of the death penalty. There are few official statistics on executions, which are generally kept under tight wraps, but rights groups estimate that there are over 1,000 people on death row in the country.

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