Vietnam jails Australian woman for life
An Australian woman was jailed for life and her 14-year-old sister given a four-year prison term in Vietnam yesterday after they were
found guilty of trafficking drugs. Phan Thi Ngoc Phuong, 25, was given a life sentence by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court
despite demands by prosecutors that she receive the death penalty. Prosecutors had also asked that her sister, Phan Ngoc Viet
Phi, be jailed for between eight and 10 years.
No criminal proceedings were brought against their youngest sister, Phan Ngoc Viet Chau, 12, because Vietnamese law prohibits
prosecution of people under the age of 14. She was released into the care of relatives and will now be allowed to return to Australia.
Phuong is believed to be from Melbourne. Her sisters are from Sydney. The trio were stopped at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat
airport as they boarded a flight to Sydney on November 1 last year. The two younger sisters were caught carrying 656 grams of
heroin concealed in packages beneath their clothing. Phuong reportedly told police after her arrest that she received $US50,000
($A75,600), plus expenses, from a woman in Sydney to transport the heroin from Vietnam to Australia.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday that the Government was relieved the death penalty had
not been imposed on the elder sister. He said the pair now had 15 days in which to appeal against the sentence. The Government
would not be making any representations because the legal processes had not finished. The spokesman said Australian consular
officials had attended the trial and were providing assistance to the girls and their family.
In November last year, the Government made a plea to remove the youngest sister, 12, from detention and she was released,
provided she did not leave Vietnam. Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and a spokeswoman for the
department said travel advice for the country stressed the heavy penalties.
In August last year, Australian woman Le My Linh was sentenced to death on drug trafficking charges. Her appeal was rejected and
she has asked for presidential clemency. Linh's death sentence triggered an outcry in Australia and prompted Mr Downer to send a
letter to his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Dy Nien, to voice opposition to the penalty.
Australian drug enforcement officials, however, have privately expressed concern about the growing involvement of Sydney-based
Vietnamese gangs in trafficking drugs to Australia from Vietnam. In late March, Australian man Quach Tieu Buu, 39, and a
Singapore national were jailed for life for trafficking ecstasy. A week earlier, Australian woman Nguyen Thi Kim Hieu, 35, was jailed
for life for trying to smuggle heroin on to a Sydney-bound plane from Ho Chi Minh City. At least eight foreign drug traffickers have
been executed in Vietnam since 1995.
Agence France Presse - June 13, 2003
Vietnam makes one of the nation's largest heroin seizures
HANOI - Police in central Vietnam seized around 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of heroin, and detained five people suspected of
smuggling it in from neighboring Laos, a police officer said Wednesday.
The men, including a father and son, were found Monday night with the heroin hidden in a box on the back of their truck under a load
of more than a ton of scrap metal and more than 1,000 motorcycle chains, said the police officer in Quang Tri province on condition
of anonymity.
Tipped by the Lao authorities, the Vietnamese police stopped the truck about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border in Quang Tri,
590 kilometers (367 miles) south of Hanoi, he said.
Police said the seizure was one of the country's biggest. In April, state media said police found 13.3 kilograms (29 pounds) of heroin
in southern Ho Chi Minh City, calling it the nation's biggest drug bust.
In Vietnam, possessing, trading or trafficking 600 grams (1.32 pounds) of heroin or 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of opium are
punishable by death.
The Associated Press - June 11, 2003
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