[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 11


VIETNAM:

6 drug traffickers get death penalty in Vietnam


6 drug traffickers were sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug trafficking
while 5 others were handed life sentences, a Ho Chi Minh City Court
official said on Tuesday.

A further 28 defendants, all members of the same drug trafficking network,
were jailed for between 3 and 20 years at the end of a 5-day trial that
ended on Monday in the southern business capital.

Among those handed the death penalty was 35-year-old female ringleader Cu
Thi Ngoc Hanh, who was arrested in March 2002 and charged with trafficking
heroin and ecstasy pills, the court official said.

Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. Anyone found in
possession of 300 grams (about 10 ounces) or more of heroin, or over 10
kilograms of opium, faces the death penalty.

At least 115 people were sentenced to death and 82 were executed by firing
squad in the communist nation last year, according to figures compiled
from state media and court officials.

3 people have been executed so far this year.

(source: Agence France-Presse)