Two British men sentenced for drug trafficking in Vietnam

A Vietnamese court today sentenced to death four people, including a British citizen of Vietnamese origin, after convicting them of drug trafficking, a court official said.

A second British citizen of Vietnamese origin received a life sentence, and three other Vietnamese got jail terms of 15 months to 23 years.

“This is one of the country’s largest drug-trafficking cases in terms of the amount of drugs involved,” said Nguyen Van Thin, head of the Quang Binh People’s Court.

Eight defendants were convicted of smuggling 339 kilograms of heroin from Laos through Vietnam to Hong Kong and mainland China.

They were sentenced after a five-day trial in the central province of Quang Binh, about 310 miles south of the capital, Hanoi.

Among the four sentenced to death was Le Manh Luong, a British citizen of Vietnamese descent. Another Briton, Tran Thi Hien, was sentenced to life in prison.

The two British citizens were arrested in June 2004 when police found 70 kilograms of heroin hidden in their two trucks, officials said.

The defendants have 15 days to appeal against their sentences.

In Vietnam, possession, trading or trafficking of more than 600 grams of heroin or 20 kilograms of opium is punishable by death.

Each year about 100 people are sentenced to death in Vietnam, many of them for drug-related offences.