13 November 2023 :

A former South Korean police officer and 17 other people in Ho Chi Minh City were sentenced to death on November 11, 2023 for trafficking over 216 kg of drugs.
Former South Korean cop Kim Soon Sik, 63, his compatriot Kang Seon Hok, 30, and Chinese man Li Tian Guan, 58, received the death sentence from the Family and Juvenile Court under the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court for drug trafficking, following a four-day trial.
Vietnamese Le Hong Vu, 30, also received death for both drug trafficking and fabricating official seals and documents.
14 others were sentenced to death for the illegal transport, storage, trade and procuring of drugs.
Three were sentenced for life. One person aged under 18 at the time of the crime, Le Thanh Nghia, was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
The case has the highest number of death sentences among all drug cases in HCMC.
Vu was the mastermind in transporting over 168 kg of drugs, and used multiple fake IDs to hide his identity.
He said the drugs were obtained from a man in Cambodia named Be, who employed numerous accomplices in a larger drug ring.
Sik, a former South Korean police officer, was expelled from the force due to violations. From 2000 to 2016, he was jailed six times for violations regarding immigration and emigration.
After serving his sentences, Sik came to Vietnam in 2019 to rent an apartment on Song Hanh Street in Thu Duc City, looking for business opportunities.
He and his Vietnamese lover, 40-year-old Huynh Thi Hoa Tran, eventually ended up running an industrial machine import-export company, which also exported granite to South Korea.
In early 2020, Sik met Guan during a meal at a Korean restaurant. In June 2020, he accepted Guan's offer to transport drugs for ₩5 million ($3,808) per kilogram, and he also invited his former cellmate Hak to join.
From July 3 to July 12, 2020, Sik and Hak received drugs for Vu three times, totaling to 39.5 kg. The drugs were taken back to Sik’s apartment, then brought to his lover’s house to be hidden between slabs of granite, according to investigators.
On July 18, 2020, Sik told his lover to hire a car and brought 10 stacks of granite to Cat Lai Port to be exported to South Korea. However, the crew was caught in the act by officers from the Ministry of Public Security that night.

02 October 2023 :

Four people were sentenced to death in HCMC on September 28, 2023 for transporting 12 kg of drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam for sale.
Vu Trong Nghia, 28, and his lover Tran Thi Trang, 31, the masterminds, were sentenced to death by the HCMC People’s Court for the illegal trading of narcotic substances and the illegal storage of military weapons.
Their accomplices, Pham Van Son and Nguyen Van Vui, were also sentenced to death, while three others received jail sentences from eight years to life for the same charges.
Prosecutors said the actual amount of drugs trafficked by the convicts is actually much greater.
In October 2018, Nghia moved from the northern city of Hai Phong to HCMC. He later got acquainted with Trang, and the two lived together. When Nghia learned that Trang was dealing drugs, they discussed to purchase a large amount from Cambodia to resell in Vietnam.
In November 2018, Nghia went to Cambodia to make contact with a person named A Chia to buy drugs. From January 2019 to March 2019, Nghia bought 12 kg of drugs, including ketamine and ecstasy pills, from A Chia, then gave them to Trang and other accomplices to sell them.
In later deals, Nghia hired Son and Vui to come to Cambodia to bring back the drugs. Nghia also bought Son and Vui a gun and 11 bullets for self-defense.
Prosecutors said Son had transported drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam four times and was paid VND100 million ($4,098). Vui did so five times and was paid VND115 million.
On March 22, 2019, a team of HCMC police inspected a car at an intersection in District 5, discovering that Nghia and Son were storing a gun and a small amount of drugs in the car. A further investigation exposed Nghia and Trang's drug trafficking ring.

25 June 2023 :

Three Taiwanese were sentenced to death in Ho Chi Minh City on June 22, 2023 for trafficking some 480 kg of drugs.
Huang Yen Sheng, 25, Kuo Yi Hao, 33, and Yeh Chen Chia, 26 were convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court.
All three admitted to their crimes.
While Sheng accepted the death sentence, Hao and Chia said the drugs they trafficked had yet to be used by Vietnamese, and thus they wished for a chance to live and rectify their mistakes.
Prosecutors said Sheng was introduced to 30-year-old Tuan Huu, a fellow Taiwanese, at a restaurant and was invited to come to Vietnam to participate in the drug trafficking. In November 2020, Sheng traveled to Cambodia and entered Vietnam through a land border.
In January 2021, Huu had someone transport an engine with 30 kg of drugs hidden inside to a warehouse in HCMC. Huu then told Sheng to transport the drugs to Hanoi.
Under Huu's instructions, Sheng divided the drugs into small 100-gram packages. Huu then had someone bring pig stomachs to Sheng so the drugs could be hidden inside them. The stomachs were packaged and transported along with frozen meat to the northern border province of Cao Bang. Huu paid Sheng NT$50,000 ($1,615) for his work.
A month later, Huu transported another 90 kg of drugs to the same HCMC warehouse for Sheng. After another ordeal was done, Sheng received VND700 million ($29,761).
In March 2021, Huu had someone transport around 180 kg of drugs to a warehouse Nha Be District. This time, he hired both Hao and Sheng to transport the drugs to Hanoi. Sheng managed to deliver 90 kg of drugs to Cao Bang, while the rest of the drugs were kept in storage.
In May 2021, Huu had someone bring 180 kg of drugs to the warehouse in Nha Be District. Under Huu's instruction, Sheng and Hao divided 30 kg of the drugs into three boxes and prepared to deliver them to Chia.
On May 19, 2021, Chia hired Grab driver Le Huu Tai to bring him to a destination to receive the drugs. After receiving the drugs from Sheng and Ha, Chia left the drugs in the vehicle, then had a driver bring him to get dinner with friends.
Tai suspected that something illegal was being delivered, so he reported the matter to the police. The police then found a large amount of drugs in boxes in Tai's trunk. A search revealed 150 kg of drugs were still being stored in the Nha Be warehouse.
Dozens of kilograms of drugs were later seized at Sheng and Hao's apartments, along with 90 kg of drugs in a warehouse in Hanoi. In total, from January to May 2021, Sheng and his accomplices transported over 479 kg of drugs.
Huu has not been arrested.

12 June 2023 :

The People's Court of the northwestern province of Son La handed out 10 death penalties and one life sentence to members of a drug trafficking ring during trials from June 1-5.
The 11 defendants, between 28 and 51 years old, were found guilty of trafficking 21 kg of drugs.
Investigation found that from June 2020 to January 16, 2021, the defendants illegally traded the drugs, including methamphetamine, amphetamine and ketamine, several times.
The operation was deemed "serious" as the gang members had traded drugs at the National Mental Hospital 1 in Hanoi.
Another member of the ring, Nguyen Xuan Quy, received death last August for storing, facilitating using and selling narcotics as he was found using drugs and organizing drug parties while staying at the hospital as a patient.
Under Vietnamese law, anyone found trafficking or possessing more than 600 grams of heroin faces the death penalty.

06 June 2023 :

Two Australians sentenced to death in Vietnam have been granted clemency after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid an official visit to the Southeast Asian country.
Albanese told ABC Television on June 5 night that the “substantial breakthrough” was due to improving diplomatic relations between the two nations.
“I made representations to the [Vietnamese] prime minister yesterday morning and by yesterday afternoon, the president had signed the clemency orders,” he told the ABC’s 7.30 programme.
“Australia very much welcomed this. We make representations on behalf of Australian citizens and we are very pleased that Vietnam has agreed to the request and we thank them for it,” he added.
Albanese said he would not reveal the names of the people granted clemency as they had requested privacy.
Their families have been informed about the decision, he said.
Albanese had travelled to Vietnam over the weekend, where he met his counterpart Pham Minh Chinh.
It was the Australian prime minister’s first official visit to the country and he said the trip provided “an impetus for this outcome”.

10 January 2024 :

President Vo Van Thuong signed a decision on December 27, 2023 to reduce death penalties to life imprisonment for 18 prisoners who filed petitions for commuted sentences.
The decision is made as stipulated in the Constitution and laws, and at the proposals of the presiding judge of the Supreme People's Court, the prosecutor general of the Supreme People's Procuracy and the chairperson of the Presidential Office.
According to the office, this decision demonstrates the leniency and humanitarian policy of the Communist Party and the State towards people who have committed serious crimes, giving them the opportunities to return to their families and the community.
The president made a similar decision for 11 prisoners in August, on the occasion of the country's Independence Day Sept. 2.
Vietnam's Penal Code stipulates that a person sentenced to death can petition for a life sentence within seven days after the court verdict takes effect.

03 September 2023 :

President Vo Van Thuong on August 30, 2023 decided to reduce death penalties to life sentences for 11 prisoners.
The commutation is within the jurisdiction of the state president as stipulated in the Constitution and law, and at the proposals by the chief judge of the Supreme People’s Court, prosecutor general of the Supreme People's Procuracy and chairman of the Presidential Office.
According to the Vietnamese authorities, this decision demonstrates the leniency and humanitarian policy of the Party and the State, creating conditions for prisoners to return to their families and the community.

25 September 2023 :

Death row prisoner Le Van Manh was executed on the morning of September 22, 2023, lawyer Le Van Luan posted on Facebook, in a case with evidence which lawyers said was not clear enough to convict.
"News and official documents said that defendant Le Van Manh was executed on the morning of September 22, 2023," said Luan.
A death notice dated September 22, 2023 from the People's Committee of Thu Phong commune, Cao Phong district, Hoa Binh province, posted widely on social media said that death row prisoner Le Van Manh, born in 1982, died at 8:45 a.m. on September 22, 2023 at a Hoa Binh Provincial Police execution facility.
Upon receiving news of the imminent execution last week, Manh’s family said they did not accept the verdict because it was an unjust sentence. They said they would continue to protest his innocence to authorities in Hanoi.
In 2005, when he was 23 years old, Le Van Manh was sentenced to death for allegedly raping and killing a female student in the same village earlier that year.
The case occurred on March 21, 2005, but it was not until April 20 that police arrested Manh on a robbery charge in another case.
After four days of detention Manh was prosecuted for murder and child rape.
Manh’s mother Nguyen Thi Viet told Radio Free Asia her son said that he had been tortured to force him to confess.
During the trial lawyers requested an examination of the defendant's body to determine whether he had been tortured, but the court refused.
A day before the execution – September 21 – the European Union delegation along with the embassies of Canada, the United Kingdom and Norway in Vietnam issued a joint statement calling on Hanoi to stay execution of the sentence.
“We strongly oppose the use of capital punishment at all times and in all circumstances, which is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and can never be justified, and advocate for Vietnam to adopt a moratorium on all executions,” said the statement posted on the EU delegation’s Facebook page.

23 May 2023 :

HCMC People's Court sentenced a South Korean businessman to death on May 19, 2023 for murdering a countryman over an unpaid debt before cutting his body into pieces.
Jeong In Cheol, 38, and his family moved to Vietnam in 2010, and later established a company in HCMC with his wife in 2018.
In March 2019, he met the eventual victim, Han Young Duk, 33, at a restaurant in Phu My Hung, a luxury residential area in District 7 and home to a large Korean community.
They got close over time and decided to each invest VND1.8 billion (US$76,700) in a project managed by a friend of Cheol at an industrial complex in southern An Giang Province, but the investment proved unsuccessful, the court heard.
On November 14, 2019, Duk went to Cheol to borrow VND2.7 billion for "two days" for another business venture. Cheol agreed to lend money at an interest rate of 30%.
However, Duk did not return the money, citing the VND1.8 billion investment that he had put in the joint investment earlier.
Duk later brought a bottle of pesticide to Cheol's company saying that Cheol should kill the industrial complex manager to seize his assets so they could both get their initial investment back.
Cheol refused and the pair argued, at which point he started to think about using violence to take back the money he had lent Duk.
Later, Cheol prepared a saw, pincers, a pair of scissors, plastic bags and gloves, as well as a glass with 10 ground-up sleeping pills, which he hid at his company office.
Some days later on November 26, after his employees had left, Cheol drove Duk to his office to talk about the VND2.7 billion debt over some beer.
He asked for the money again, so Duk offered to repay him with two pearl bracelets worth nearly US$100,000. But Cheol said no as they did not have the registered documents to be legally sold.
That evening he poured poison and beer into the glass with sleeping powder and gave it to Duk. Once the victim was unconscious, he suffocated him by forcing plastic gloves into his mouth to ensure he was dead.
He then cut up the body into pieces, wrapped them in plastic bags and hid them on the top floor of the building.
The next day, his employees suspected the murder and told police, with Cheol confessing his crime.
Cheol told the court that he committed the murder when under a lot of financial pressure. He said he had borrowed money from friends and relatives to lend to Duk, and his business was also losing money, so he was under a lot of stress.
He apologized for his "very bad actions" and asked for a lesser sentence, but the court said the crime was especially dangerous and the death penalty was upheld.