July 19, 2005 - 12:11AM
A court in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City has sentenced an
Australian woman to 20 years in prison for heroin trafficking.
Tran Thi Hong Loan, a 33-year-old Australian of Vietnamese
origin who lives in NSW, was convicted of trafficking 580 grams of
heroin and given a 20-year sentence at a one-day trial on Friday, a
court official said on Monday.
Vietnamese authorities found the heroin hidden on her body and
in her luggage as she was about to board a flight to Sydney last
August, said the official, who identified himself only as Hieu.
She has 15 days to appeal her sentence.
In Vietnam, possessing, trading or trafficking 600 grams of
heroin or 20 kilograms of opium is punishable by death or life in
prison.
About 100 people are sentenced to death each year in Vietnam for
drug-related offences.
