A HONG KONG heroin smuggler has been executed by firing squad in Vietnam after spending more than two years on death row and despite numerous pleas by the Hong Kong and British governments.
Wong Chi-shing, 34, is believed to be the first foreigner executed for narcotics smuggling since it was made a capital offence in 1992.
He was executed at Chi Hoa prison in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday after a visit from his mother. She will look after his two children.
He was cremated and his mother was expected to return to the territory with his ashes this week.
Wong was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City in March 1993 en route from Bangkok with five kilograms of heroin on his way to Germany. He was convicted two months later.
President Le Duc Anh rejected an appeal, said Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan.
British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd appealed to Hanoi in October 1993 for clemency, a request repeated several times by officials.