~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

Five sentenced to death in Vietnam drugs trial

HANOI - A court in southern Vietnam has sentenced three Cambodians and two Vietnamese to death for trafficking heroin into the country, official media reported on Friday. The Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced the remaining eight defendants in the trial to a range of jail terms.

On Thursday official media had said prosecutors were seeking four death penalties. The Cambodians were named as Chuan Oi, Seng Bun Si and Tran The Trung, and the Vietnamese as Quach Kim Thuan and Nguyen Hong Minh Thanh.
Thanh Nien gave no timeframe for the trafficking but other state media has said the heroin was brought in for sale locally to customers including Taiwan tourists.

Details on the quantity of heroin seized were not available and court officials could not be reached for comment. Vietnam has been identified by anti-drug agencies as an increasingly important post in the heroin trafficking route from the infamous Golden Triangle region centred on Myanmar, Laos and parts of southwestern China and northern Thailand.

The communist-ruled country last year sentenced 49 people to death and arrested 18,000 for drug-related crimes. Comparative figures were not immediately available.

Reuters - November 4, 1999.