UK drug smuggler faces death

2006-11-24 17:04

Hanoi - A Vietnamese prosecutor called for the death penalty against a British national accused of drugs charges and said a female accomplice should serve life in prison, a court official said on Friday.

The prosecutor said Le Manh Luong, 46, who is of Vietnamese origin, should face the death penalty for leading a gang accused of smuggling 339kg of heroin into Vietnam from neighbouring Laos.

He demanded a life sentence for Tran Thi Hien, 47, a woman who also holds a British passport, during the hearing on Thursday in Quang Binh, central Vietnam, according to provincial court president Nguyen Van Thin.

"The verdict could be announced on Saturday," the judge said. It had been initially expected next Wednesday.

The two have been on trial with six accomplices, including two Laotians, in what is believed to be the biggest drug trafficking case ever heard in this central province, 500km south of Hanoi.

The prosecutor demanded a death sentence for three of the other defendants and sentences ranging from one to 20 years for the rest.

This year, at least 59 people have been sentenced to death in Vietnam, according to information compiled from state media. The punishment has been carried out 25 times this year.

Communist Vietnam, which has some of the toughest drug laws in the world, imposes the death penalty on anyone caught with more than 600 grams of heroin or 20kg of opium.

Foreigners, however, are rarely executed. Only one Westerner has been put to death here for drug trafficking since 1975 - Nguyen Thi Hiep, a Canadian of Vietnamese origin, who was executed by firing squad in April 2000.

Vietnam has in the recent past spared the lives of several Australian nationals sentenced to death on drugs charges.

- AFP