Vietnam executes 4 and sentences 2 to death for drug trafficking
HANOI - Four men in southern Vietnam were put before firing squads for drug trafficking while two others were condemned to death in the north on the same charge, officials and state-controlled media reported Friday.
Nguyen Minh Tong, 38, Vo Minh Tam, 32, Tran Van Phuoc, 44, and Luu Kien Quang, 47, were executed by a firing squad in southern Long An province on Thursday morning, said the provincial court official who identified herself only as Cuc.
The four, part of a major drug trafficking ring involving 24 others, were convicted of trafficking more than 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of heroin from Cambodia into Vietnam from 2000 to 2002 and were sentenced to death in August 2003, she said.
An appeals court upheld the sentences, and the president rejected pleas for clemency.
Friday's Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper reported that a court in Hanoi on Thursday sentenced Duong Van Hung and Song A De to death for drug trafficking at the end of a three-day trial.
They were convicted of trafficking 3.9 kilograms (8.5 pounds) of heroin and 200 Ecstasy pills from 2002 until their arrest in June 2003.
Four other gang members were sentenced from six years to life prison on the same charges, it said.
In Vietnam, possessing, trading or trafficking 600 grams (1.32 pounds) of heroin or 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of opium is punishable by death or life in prison.
The Associated Press - September 17, 2004.
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