VIETNAM EXECUTES CANADIAN WOMAN

Diplomatic pressure, new evidence ignored

OTTAWA - A Canadian woman was blindfolded, gagged and executed by
firing squad at a Hanoi prison, despite lingering doubts about her
conviction for drug smuggling and high-level diplomatic pressure on
the Vietnamese government to commute her death sentence.

Nguyen Thi Hiep, a Toronto seamstress who was convicted of heroin
trafficking in 1997, refused to a sign a confession that Vietnamese
officials tried to force on her moments before her execution early
Monday.

Canadian officials, who met yesterday with the Vietnamese ambassador
in Ottawa, were angered at the execution, which went ahead without
notice and despite repeated pleas for compassion from the Canadian
government and supporters around the world.

"This action has come as a shock," said Lloyd Axworthy, the Foreign
Affairs Minister. He said Ms. Nguyen may have been duped into
smuggling drugs. "It is most unfortunate that the Vietnamese
government chose to ignore pertinent information that may have saved
Ms. Nguyen's life."

The 43-year-old Vietnamese-Canadian was buried within prison walls at
a short ceremony attended by only her husband just hours after she was
put to death.

Several politicians have made appeals on Ms. Nguyen's behalf,
including Mr. Axworthy, Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister, and even
Bill Clinton, the U.S. president.

Mr. Clinton was contacted about the case by Rubin "Hurricane" Carter,
an advocate for the wrongfully convicted.

While Ottawa appealed for a lighter sentence on humanitarian grounds,
Toronto police were turning up evidence they believe could have
exonerated Ms. Nguyen.

The crux of their case is that another Toronto woman caught in similar
circumstances, but at Pearson International Airport, was cleared of
all charges. Toronto police suspect both women innocently were used to
carry drugs.

Two months ago, Foreign Affairs officials sent the police evidence to
Vietnam. "Everything was kept secret until the execution was carried
out, but it was our understanding the Vietnamese authorities would
hold it off until such a time that they would examine and review the
evidence," said Reynald Doirin, spokesman for the department. "This
would have shed new light on whether she did it willingly or whether
she was forced into it."

Ms. Nguyen's two sons and brother and sister, who all live in the
Toronto area, did not learn about her execution until after the fact.
The two sons, Tu Le and Chung Le, recently returned from visiting
their mother in prison and had believed her execution was put on hold,
said lawyer James Lockyer of the Association in Defence of the
Wrongfully Convicted.

The campaign to save Ms. Nguyen operated behind the scenes for three
years to avoid angering and embarrassing the Vietnamese.

"We all agreed between us that we were going to be circumspect," said
Mr. Lockyer. "Maybe we made a mistake."

"I would like to assure the Nguyen family and its supporters that we
will continue to seek a full review of this matter," Mr. Axworthy
said.

Ms. Nguyen was born in Vietnam but emigrated to Canada in 1982, living
in Montreal before she moved to Toronto in 1995.

She has been in a Hanoi prison ever since she was found guilty in 1997
of trying to ferry heroin, hidden in picture frames, through Hanoi
International Airport during a 1996 vacation to visit family.

The Vietnamese ambassador in Ottawa did not return telephone calls
yesterday.

Under Vietnamese law, trafficking in as little as one kilogram of
drugs is punishable by death.

Ms. Nguyen's mother, a landed immigrant who came to Canada in 1994, is
serving a life sentence in Hanoi for smuggling drugs with her daughter.