Blood flows on Vietnam's day of justice
HANOI - Thirteen people were executed by firing squad in Vietnam over the last two days for drug trafficking and murder, court officials said on Thursday.
Three people were shot at dawn Wednesday at central province of Ha Tinh for trafficking trafficking seven kilograms of heroin from neighbouring Laos. They were sentenced to death in January 2002. Ten others were executed for drug trafficking and murder on Tuesday at Le Xa shooting ground, in northern province of Nam Dinh, in front of nearly 1 000 local people.
No explanation was given for the execution of ten people on the same day. "The execution deadline expired for those people who all had their appeal or presidential clemency rejected", a court official said. "Executions were carried out following orders from the highest justice authorities in the country", he added.
There was no official information about how long they had been held on death row before execution. Blindfolded and tied to a stake, the ten were executed simultaneously by ten marksmen, according to a witness.
Eight of them belonged to a drug network that was convicted in June 2000 for smuggling 275kg of heroin and 289kg of opium from neighbouring Laos between 1992 and 1999 to Vietnam.
The government has carried out a long-running campaign to wipe out the narcotics trade. Around half of the 95 people sentenced to death so far this year were convicted of drug trafficking, according to statistics compiled from state-media.
In September, public security vice-minister Le The Tiem said Vietnam believed the death penalty was an effective method of preventing drugs production and trafficking. "This is a very effective measure," he said. "In the near future, it will be our policy to maintain strong measures against these extremely serious crimes."
At least 48 people have been executed in the communist nation since the beginning of 2003, according to the same local sources.
Agence France Presse - November 13, 2003
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