Australian faces death sentence for drug trafficking in Viet Nam

In a statement today, a Vietnamese court announced that an Australian man will be sentenced to death by firing squad for smuggling heroin, Australia’s Herald Sun reports. Tony Manh was arrested in March while boarding a plane in Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney.

Viet Nam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and approximately 100 people are sentenced to death each year in the country for drug-related offenses. A person may be punished by death or life in prison for possessing, trading, or trafficking more than 600g of heroin or 20kg of opium.

“Recently, the fact that many Australians of Vietnamese descent are involved in trafficking drugs from Vietnam to Australia has become a phenomenon,” Phan Than, deputy head of the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City, said. “City authorities have been trying their best to stop this practice.”

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