Vietnam death sentences reach 36 in one month

Dec 17, 2007, 11:54 GMT

Hanoi - A court in northern Vietnam has sentenced nine members of a heroin trafficking ring to death, bringing the number of death sentences Vietnam has issued in the past month for drug trafficking to 36, police said Monday.

The People's Court of Hanoi handed out death sentences to the ringleader, 35-year-old Do Thi Ngoc, and to eight other defendants at a 10-day trial that ended late last week, said Pham Van Chinh of the Ministry of Public Security's Anti-narcotics Department.

The ring distributed 149 packs of heroin, each weighing about 350 grams, between 1999 and early 2006, when the leader was arrested.

'They bought heroin from north-western provinces that share borders with Laos, and sold it in Hanoi and other northern provinces,' Chinh said.

The court sentenced eight other accomplices of the ring to prison for life, and 10 more to between 15 and 20 years in prison, according to the officer.

Late last month, courts in northern Vietnam sentenced 27 other heroin traffickers to death, including 12 in Quang Ninh province, 11 in Hanoi, and four in Nghe An province.

On Tuesday, Chinh said, the Hanoi court will open the trial of another drug trafficking ring, this one involving 36 people. Many more death sentences are expected to be handed out.

Trafficking 600 grams or more of heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam.

Vietnam has sentenced at least 110 people to death since the beginning of this year, including 77 for drug crimes.