29 December 2003 :

An ex-deputy police chief in southern Vietnam who shot a Communist Party cadre with a machine gun during a meeting to punish him for being disorganised had been executed, officials said. Nguyen Van Hong, former deputy police chief of Cam Giang, Tay Ninh province, was sentenced to death in February 2003 after being convicted of killing Nguyen Duy Nghia. He was executed on December 26 in Tay Ninh province, a judicial source told AFP. In August 2002, Hong had stormed into the police station where the Communist Party cadre had been called to a meeting to discuss punishing him for being disorganised. He opened fired with a submachine gun and Nghia was killed instantly. Another policeman was badly injured, taking a bullet in the midriff. Hong then turned the gun on himself but the shot missed his heart and he survived. According to information compiled from state media and court officials, at least 69 people have been executed and 109 people sentenced to death in Vietnam so far in 2003.