Vietnamese court sentences 73-year-old Vietnam-born Australian woman to death for trafficking heroin

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij4gSfCOkrWCebVcv8e4dA0zrBWzxGmnUPGZU-xXWcEhwXJgPM56P_ixBcx63Zgmm3j6ZGtXjuAhm2jNBezfz8i8xMbR_YsOu3ImV5Je8fEnaFo9_KN-MGqrdxt9SAqrpCzxyHtC99BTw/s1600/Nguyen+Thi+Huong%252C+73.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The People's Court found Nguyen Thi Huong guilty of smuggling 2.8 kg of heroin." border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij4gSfCOkrWCebVcv8e4dA0zrBWzxGmnUPGZU-xXWcEhwXJgPM56P_ixBcx63Zgmm3j6ZGtXjuAhm2jNBezfz8i8xMbR_YsOu3ImV5Je8fEnaFo9_KN-MGqrdxt9SAqrpCzxyHtC99BTw/s400/Nguyen+Thi+Huong%252C+73.jpg" title="The People's Court found Nguyen Thi Huong guilty of smuggling 2.8 kg of heroin." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The People's Court found Nguyen Thi Huong guilty of smuggling 2.8 kg of heroin.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">A court in southern Vietnam has sentenced a 73-year-old Vietnam-born Australian woman to death for trafficking heroin hidden in bars of soap, several state-run media outlets reported on Thursday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court found Nguyen Thi Huong guilty on Wednesday of possessing 36 bars of soap stuffed with 2.8 kg (6 lb) of heroin in her baggage as she was boarding a flight to Australia in December 2014, the Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Court officials and Australian diplomats in the city could not be reached for comment about the case.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was "concerned that an Australian citizen has been sentenced to death in Vietnam" but added that under Vietnamese law the woman can appeal the sentence "so there is still some way to go before this legal process concludes".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We will continue to provide consular assistance and support to the woman and her family. Universal opposition to capital punishment is a long-established policy of Australian governments," a department spokesperson said in an email.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper and news portal tuoitrenews.vn reported that Huong had said she was given the soap as a gift by a woman, identified only as Helen, while they were on a trip to the coastal city of Vung Tau.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Huong told the court she wanted to take them to Australia as gifts and was not aware of what they contained.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, the Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper, controlled by the city's police, said Huong had failed to prove that the other woman was real.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The court ruled that the offence was "extremely dangerous to the community" and found her guilty. She now faces death by lethal injection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Tuoi Tre newspaper published a photo of Huong covering her mouth with her hands as she was taken from the court after the verdict. Huong has 15 days in which to appeal against the death sentence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The death penalty is applied in communist Vietnam in cases of trafficking of 100 grams of heroin or more. In late 2013, Vietnam adopted the use of lethal injections for capital cases instead of firing squads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reuters, June 30, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Asia Australia Drug trafficking Vietnam Women Vietnamese court sentences 73-year-old Vietnam-born Australian woman to death for trafficking heroin

The People's Court found Nguyen Thi Huong guilty of smuggling 2.8 kg of heroin. A court in southern Vietnam has sentenced a 73-year-old ...

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Aussie sentenced to life for drug trafficking in Vietnam, escapes death penalty

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgejwOxmZZaL0bwwNK5UiXaXQFAxmO3yhEbfHAnuoSqXLe9zWTkUufwRlYJUHrAN5MFEp0cWDqF2dqHLwYOxFrsczaSHkMk-Q8yVSQ3xSSpeRZs1Xoa_onDThu9z9Wu0YBLLqst2bNBEbk/s1600/Hanoi+Vietnam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hanoi, Vietnam" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgejwOxmZZaL0bwwNK5UiXaXQFAxmO3yhEbfHAnuoSqXLe9zWTkUufwRlYJUHrAN5MFEp0cWDqF2dqHLwYOxFrsczaSHkMk-Q8yVSQ3xSSpeRZs1Xoa_onDThu9z9Wu0YBLLqst2bNBEbk/s400/Hanoi+Vietnam.jpg" title="Hanoi, Vietnam" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A court in southern Vietnam has sentenced an Australian man to life in prison for drug trafficking.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nathan Andrew James was convicted in a one-day trial by the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City this week, a court official said Wednesday on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.fr/2013/10/vietnam-arrests-two-australian.html" target="_blank">James, 34, was arrested in October 2013</a> while checking into a flight to Australia after customs officials at the airport discovered 1.5 kilograms ( 3.3 pounds ) of heroin hidden in his luggage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The indictment said James owed some money to a man named Tim, who offered to write off the debt if James agreed to take the heroin hidden in two suitcases from Vietnam to Australia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">James told the court that he had received the suitcases from the man, but denied that he knew heroin was hidden in them, an explanation that was rejected by the court, the official said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">James could have been sentenced to death, but the court took into consideration his history of mental disorders, she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement Wednesday that it has provided consular assistance to a man convicted in Vietnam. It did not name him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That assistance included attending court proceedings and visiting him in prison. The statement gave no other details, citing privacy obligations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vietnam has one of the world's toughest drug laws, where trafficking 100 grams of heroin is punishable by death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The Associated Press, June 1, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Death-Penalty-News-206848499362906/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Australia Consular assistance Drug trafficking Mental Illness Vietnam Aussie sentenced to life for drug trafficking in Vietnam, escapes death penalty

A court in southern Vietnam has sentenced an Australian man to life in prison for drug trafficking. Nathan Andrew James was convicted in a o...

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