FOUR TO FACE FIRING SQUAD IN VIETNAM DRUG CASE

HANOI (Reuters) -- Four people have been sentenced to death by firing squad
for trafficking heroin through Vietnam from Laos, a court official said today.

The two Laotians and two Vietnamese were convicted in a four-day trial which
ended on Friday morning, the official from the People's Court in the central
province of Ha Tinh said.

Three other defendants, including two Laotians and two women, were handed
life sentences. An eighth person was sentenced for five years, the official
said.

``There was 7.2 kg (15.8 pounds) of heroin seized for the prosecution's
evidence,'' the court official said by telephone.

The convicted stood accused of bringing around 110 pounds of heroin into
Vietnam from neighboring Laos since 1996. All eight of the defendants were
arrested and detained by April last year.

The court official did not say why the eight people had been detained for so
long before going on trial, but in Vietnam it is common for people to be
held pending further investigations.

Trafficking as little as 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of heroin is punishable by
life imprisonment or death in Vietnam.

Last year, 22 people including former law enforcement officers were
convicted in the country's biggest drug case to date for their roles in a
drug syndicate that brought large amounts of heroin and opium into Vietnam
from the infamous Golden Triangle. Heroin is derived from opium.

Seven were sentenced to death and were simultaneously executed by a 35-man
firing squad in March. An eighth person had her death sentence commuted to
life imprisonment after President Tran Duc Luong granted clemency.

The Golden Triangle, which covers parts of Laos, Myanmar (Burma),
southwestern China and northern Thailand, is one of the world's major opium
growing and heroin refining areas. Vietnam and Cambodia have become
increasingly important international trafficking routes.

Three more men, including two former law enforcement officers, have been
sentenced to death in the last two weeks for trafficking heroin, in three
trials by a Hanoi court.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett