23 July 2003 :

Forty-nine people on death row in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City were expected to be executed soon, after their appeals for presidential clemency had been rejected, state media said. Under Vietnamese law, once an appeal for clemency has been turned down, the state is obliged to carry out the death sentence as soon as possible. Court officials refused to reveal details about the report carried by the Tien Phong newspaper nor say when the executions of the 49 people would be carried out. A further 10 people whose convictions had been upheld by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court asked President Tran Duc Luong for their death sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment, the daily said. A total of 11 people had their death sentences commuted in presidential amnesties in February, May, and July 2003. In the first six months of 2003, 10 people were executed by firing squad and 11 people were handed the death penalty by the city's People's Court but were awaiting appeals, the Tien Phong added. At least 19 people had been executed and 59 sentenced to death across the communist-ruled country so far in 2003, according to information compiled from state media.