Pleas for Australian facing firing squad in Vietnam
The Federal Government should take a tough stand to force
Vietnam not to execute an Australian woman convicted on
drug offences, the Vietnamese community said yesterday.
Amnesty International also spoke out against the death
sentence imposed on Le My Linh, 43, who was convicted on
August 28 of trafficking 888 grams of heroin and 209 grams
of diazepam.
Her appeal against the sentence was rejected on Monday
and she now has seven days to ask for clemency from
Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong. She faces execution
by a firing squad.
Trung Doan, the federal president of the Vietnamese
Community in Australia, said it was impossible to get a fair
trial in Vietnam as the communist party controlled the courts,
the judges, the prosecution and the lawyers.
"The chance of an unfair trial and the execution of innocent
people is a real possibility," Mr Doan told AAP.
The Vietnamese community called on the Federal
Government to emulate Canada which, after one of its
citizens was executed, cut off aid and actively opposed
Vietnam's efforts to join international bodies such as the
World Trade Organisation, Mr Doan said.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer wrote in August to his
Vietnamese counterpart to plead Le's case and on Monday
vowed to do so again and to make vigorous representations
on her behalf.
The Federal Government would also support her bid for
clemency, Mr Downer said.
But that was not enough, Mr Doan said.
"We're calling on the Australian Government to do similar
things [to the Canadian example] before any execution," he
said.
"Just protesting verbally is not enough."
The community was opposed to the death penalty, but said a
fair and transparent trial should be held and if, in that case,
Le was convicted, then she should be punished, but not
executed.
Amnesty International Australia president, Russell Thirgood,
said Mr Downer should continue making strong
representations against the death penalty.
"Amnesty International also calls on the Australian
Government to pursue the issue of abolishing the death
penalty in Vietnam as part of the Australia-Vietnam human
rights dialogue in 2003.
"The death penalty is a violation of the most basic human
right - the right to life.
It is an irrevocable act of violence by the state and the risk of
executing the innocent can never be underestimated."
Le was arrested in November last year as she prepared to
board a flight to Sydney with 17 small boxes filled with heroin
stashed on her body, Vietnamese officials told the
Associated Press in Hanoi.
Possessing, trading or trafficking more than 600 grams of
heroin or 10 kilograms of opium are punishable by death in
Vietnam.
Last year, firing squads in Vietnam executed 55 people on
drug-related charges.
The Australian Associated Press - December 25, 2002.
Death-row Australian loses Vietnam appeal
HANOI - A Vietnamese court has rejected an appeal by an
Australian woman of Vietnamese origin who is facing the death
penalty for drug trafficking in a case that has raised diplomatic
tension with Canberra.
Le My Linh, 43, was convicted and sentenced to death in August by
the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern business
centre, for trying to smuggle 881.8 grams (about two pounds) of heroin to Sydney in
November, 2001. She pleaded guilty.
"The death sentence against Linh remains unchanged," a People's Supreme Court of Appeal
in the city told Reuters on Monday after the half-day hearing.
"She now returns to the prison and has seven days to ask for clemency from the state
president before her execution."
Smuggling 600 grams (1.32 pounds) of heroin is punishable by death or life imprisonment in
Vietnam, where executions are carried out by firing squad.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in a statement he was "disappointed the
court upheld the death sentence", a spokesman said in Canberra.
Downer wrote in August to his Vietnamese counterpart and is again writing to the Vietnamese
Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien about the case, the spokesman said.
"Australia is universally and consistently opposed to capital punishment," the spokesman
said.
Linh is not the only Australian citizen facing drug charges in Vietnam. Three sisters, aged 12,
14 and 24 were arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport in November and charged with trying to
smuggle heroin to Sydney.
In January, an Australian of Vietnamese origin, Nguyen Thi Kim Hieu, 34, was arrested with
nearly a kilogram (two pounds) of heroin before boarding a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to
Sydney.
Vietnam in April 2000 executed a 44-year-old Canadian woman of Vietnamese origin, Nguyen
Thi Hiep, who was convicted in 1997 of trying to smuggle about one kilogram of heroin through
Hanoi airport the previous year.
That caused a diplomatic row with Canada.
Reuters - December 23, 2002.
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