Vietnam praises Thai terror sentence
HANOI - Vietnam welcomed a Thai court's jailing of a US citizen who attempted to bomb the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok six years ago.
"Vietnam welcomes the Bangkok criminal court's verdict," foreign ministry spokesperson Le Dung said in a statement released by the communist party daily Nhan Dan and the official Vietnam News Agency on Saturday.
"The judgment was in accordance with Thailand's laws, international laws and international efforts to combat criminals and terrorists," he added.
Vietnam-born Vo Duc Van was sentenced to 12 years on Friday, for illegal possession of explosives and conspiring to bomb after his 2001 attack on the embassy, which he said was a protest against Vietnam's communist government.
He planted one small bomb outside the embassy walls and threw a second into the compound.
The bombs were wired to a cell-phone detonator but failed to explode when the device was triggered.
The 48-year-old man was arrested in 2001 as he stepped off a plane in the US and extradited to Thailand in December 2006.
The Bangkok Post - October 27, 2007.
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