5 drug traffickers to face firing squad in Vietnam
HANOI - Five drug traffickers, including three women, will face the firing
squad after their appeal against the death sentence was rejected by a
court in northern Vietnam, state media reported on Friday.
The Supreme People's Court in Hung Yen province also upheld prison
sentences ranging from 13 years to life imprisonment against eight
other defendants in a three-day hearing that ended on Thursday, the Tin
Tuc daily said.
The gang members were convicted of trafficking nearly 10 kg of heroin
since 1998 from neighbouring China and Laos to Hung Yen and the
nation's capital, Hanoi.
The drug ring was masterminded by 39-year-old Do Thi Hoa, one of the
three women who faces execution.
There was no indication of when the death sentences would be carried
out. Prisoners are usually kept on death row for at least a year before
being executed.
Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. Anyone found
in possession of 300 grams or more of heroin, or more than 10 kg of
opium, faces the death penalty.
In 2001, 55 people received the death penalty for drug-trafficking,
compared with 85 in 2000 and 76 in 1999.
At least 24 people have been executed across the country so far this
year, according to partial figures published in the official press.
Agence France Presse - November 22, 2002.
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