16 May 2003 :

Two men on death row in Vietnam had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment by Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong.
The president rejected appeals for eight others who had been condemned to face the firing squad for murder or drug trafficking, Hanoi's police newspaper An Ninh Thu Do added. No reason was given for the commutation of the sentences.
Hoang Kim Hoan, 37, had been sentenced to death in 2000 by a court in the northern province of Lang Son for drug trafficking. To Thanh Thich, 23, had been sentenced to death in 2001 for a murder committed in the southern province of Ca Mau.