VIETNAM. EIGHT SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR HEROIN TRAFFICKING
December 14, 2007: a Vietnamese court sentenced eight people to death for smuggling heroin, raising to 35 the number of people put on death row within two weeks for trafficking the drug.
A court clerk says a 10 day Hanoi trial found 26 drug smugglers guilty of trafficking or selling a total of more 50 kgs of heroin.
Eight defendants received life terms, and the others were jailed for between 15 and 20 years. The 35 year old female ringleader was among those sentenced to death by firing squad for trafficking more than 36 kgs of heroin between 1998 and February 2006.
The gang had brought the heroin from the northern mountainous Son La or Hoa Binh provinces, near the Lao border, to sell to users in the capital. (Sources: ABC Radio Australia, 14/12/2007)
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