FIVE DRUG TRAFFICKERS SENTENCED TO DEATH IN VIETNAM

Five drug traffickers, including three women, were sentenced to death in
northern Vietnam as part of the government's crackdown against the
narcotics trade, officials said Monday.

The People's Court in Hung Yen province handed eight other defendants
prison sentences ranging from 13 years to life imprisonment on Saturday
after a three-day trial, a court official told AFP.

The gang, masterminded by the 39-year-old Do Thi Hoa, was convicted of
trafficking nearly 10 kilograms of heroin since 1998 from neighbouring
China and Laos to Hung Yen and the nation's capital, Hanoi.

Under Vietnam's tough drug laws, anyone found in possession of 300 grams or
more of heroin, or 10 kilograms or more of opium, faces the death penalty.

The official was unable to say when the death sentence would be carried
out. Prisoners in Vietnam are usually kept on death row for at least a year
before being executed.

At least 24 people have been executed so far this year, according to
partial figures published in the official press.

Drug-trafficking alone accounted for 55 executions in 2001.