[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 3


VIETNAM:

Death sentence upheld for Vietnamese serial killer


A court of appeal in Vietnam upheld the death sentence on a 49-year-old
woman from Ho Chi Minh City, who poisoned 13 people to death with cyanide,
local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Thursday.

The People's Supreme Court in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday upheld the
verdict passed by the People's Court of southern Binh Duong province last
September on Le Thanh Van who on the charges of murder, robbery and
illegal possession of toxic chemicals.

The defendant appropriated nearly 20,000 US dollars in Vietnamese and US
bank notes, a radio cassette player a mobile phone from the 13 victims,
who were from the city and the southernprovinces of Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc
and Dong Nai, between January 1998 and August 2001.

Taking full advantages of her lovely face, sweet voice and goodcommand of
medicine, Van tried to make friends with rich people, and then fooled them
into drinking water or eating foods containing cyanide, the paper said.

(source: Xinhuanet)