Community group wants transparency in Vietnam's courts
CANBERRA - Members of Australia's Vietnamese community called yesterday for the government to send an observer to Vietnam to monitor the trial of three sisters charged with heroin trafficking.
National president of the Vietnamese Community in Australia Trung Doan said the observer was needed because the Vietnamese judicial system lacked fairness and transparency.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said there were no plans for an observer but said Australian diplomats were seeking to make contact with the three sisters, who are Australians of Vietnamese origin.
Phan Thi Kim Phuong, 24, her two sisters, aged 12 and 14, and her 2-year-old son were arrested Saturday night at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City as they were about to board a flight to Sydney.
Investigators said Monday they found 674 grams (1.5 pounds) of heroin hidden in plastic containers in the girls' underwear. Australian officials say they have been told the girls were caught with 656 grams (23 ounces) of the drug.
"I believe that if there's a foreign observer at the trial then the Vietnamese authorities would be put under pressure to show that their trial is fair and transparent," he said.
Tan Son Nhat airport deputy security chief Do Xuan Toan said the 24-year-old sister had admitted to concealing heroin with her sisters.
Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. Possessing or trafficking 600 grams (1.3 pounds) of heroin or 20 kilograms (88 pounds) of opium is punishable by death.
However, it is unlikely that any of the sisters arrested over the weekend would face the death penalty. Under Vietnamese law, a woman with a child under the age of three at the time of arrest cannot be given the death penalty. In addition, juveniles are exempt from the death sentence.
Last year, 55 people were executed by firing squad on drug trafficking charges.
On Aug. 28, an Australian woman of Vietnamese origin, Le My Linh, 43, of Sydney, was sentenced to death after being convicted of trafficking 880 grams (2 pounds) of heroin.
The Associated Press - November 6, 2002
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