Eight sentenced to death over heroin trafficking
Eight Vietnamese were sentenced to death today for trafficking 78 kilograms of heroin into the country from Laos and Cambodia.
The court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced nine other defendants to life in prison, while 15 others received jail terms of between five years and 20 years in the week-long trial, said a court official.
The ringleader, 24-year-old college student Tran Xuan Ha, and seven other defendants were convicted of smuggling the heroin into Vietnam between 2003 and the time of their arrests in April last year.
The defendants have 15 days to appeal against their sentences.
Vietnam has some of the world’s toughest drug laws. Possessing, trading or trafficking more than 600 grams of heroin or 20 kilograms of opium is punishable by death.
About 100 people are sentenced to death for drug-related offences each year in Vietnam, which uses firing squads for executions.
