bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse in Hanoi

A Thai drug smuggler has been sentenced to death in Vietnam, state media said Wednesday, the second such penalty given to a foreigner within a week in the communist country.
A court in Vietnam, whose drug laws are among the toughest in the world, sentenced Suracha Chaimongkol to death after she was caught carrying two kilograms of cocaine, the official Thanh Nien newspaper said.
The drugs were discovered hidden inside two photograph albums when the 31-year-old graduate landed at Ho Chi Minh City’s airport in October last year after taking a flight from Brazil.
On Monday state media said a 31-year-old Nigerian man was sentenced to death by the same court in the southern business hub for smuggling 3.4 kilograms of methamphetamines from Qatar to Vietnam.
Vietnam takes a hardline on drugs and anyone found guilty of attempting to smuggle more than 100 grams of heroin or cocaine can face the death penalty.
Convictions and sentences are revealed only by local media which is strictly under state control in the communist nation.
Suracha told the court she did not know she was carrying the drugs, but said she had been paid to bring the photograph albums to Vietnam, according to the Thanh Nien report.
After a two-year hiatus in carrying out capital punishment due to problems procuring chemicals for lethal injections, Vietnam executed its first prisoner by the method in August.
The country currently has more than 586 prisoners on death row, at least 117 of whom meet all the criteria for immediate execution, media reports have said.
Although the country does not release statistics on executions, rights group Amnesty International recorded five executions in 2011 and said 23 new death sentences were handed out that year, mainly to drug traffickers.
Foreigners frequently fall foul of the nation’s stiff drug laws.
In June last year, a Thai design student was handed a death penalty for trafficking three kilos of methamphetamine, while in October, a 61-year-old Filipina received the death penalty for smuggling five kilograms of methamphetamines.


Two foreign drug smugglers face Vietnam death penalty

Thai woman and Nigerian man given death sentence after smuggling drugs