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Vietnamese police have arrested a truck driver carrying more than 1,400 pirated copies of the controversial international best-seller "The Da Vinci Code," an official said Tuesday.
"The books were illegally printed in Vietnam," a Culture and Information Ministry official told AFP. "Authorities have confiscated the books and opened an investigation into the case."
The driver, Vu Khiem Toan, was arrested Saturday in Hanoi while carrying 1,470 Vietnamese-language copies of Dan Brown's religious thriller, said Pham Tuyet Nga of the ministry's publishing department.
Copyright and trademark infringement is rife in Vietnam, where the communist government censors all media but pirated novels, computer software and movie DVDs are sold widely along with fake fashion items.
The book and blockbuster film of "The Da Vinci Code" have angered Christian leaders with their premise that Jesus married and fathered a child, and the depiction of the conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei as a murderous cult.
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AFP 040824 GMT 07 06
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