Pubdate: Mon, 19 Aug 2002
Source: Hindustan Times (India)
Contact:  http://www.hindustantimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/910

FIVE DRUG TRAFFICKERS SENTENCED TO DEATH IN VIETNAM

Five drug traffickers, including three women, were sentenced to death in 
northern Vietnam as part of the government's crackdown against the 
narcotics trade, officials said Monday.

The People's Court in Hung Yen province handed eight other defendants 
prison sentences ranging from 13 years to life imprisonment on Saturday 
after a three-day trial, a court official told AFP.

The gang, masterminded by the 39-year-old Do Thi Hoa, was convicted of 
trafficking nearly 10 kilograms of heroin since 1998 from neighbouring 
China and Laos to Hung Yen and the nation's capital, Hanoi.

Under Vietnam's tough drug laws, anyone found in possession of 300 grams or 
more of heroin, or 10 kilograms or more of opium, faces the death penalty.

The official was unable to say when the death sentence would be carried 
out. Prisoners in Vietnam are usually kept on death row for at least a year 
before being executed.

At least 24 people have been executed so far this year, according to 
partial figures published in the official press.

Drug-trafficking alone accounted for 55 executions in 2001.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex