Saturday, April 23, 2011

Nigerian smuggler 'sentenced to death' in Vietnam

A court in Vietnam has sentenced a Nigerian to death for heroin trafficking, state media said on Saturday.

He is the second person from the African nation to be condemned to execution for drugs offences in the past month.

Nnaji David Ete, 33, was convicted Thursday after a three-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City for his role in trafficking 11 kilos (24 pounds) of heroin into the country and then on to China over several years, the Vietnam News reported.

His Vietnamese wife was jailed for life on the same charge, while three other Nigerian men involved in the cross-border drugs ring were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

The case comes a month after Michael Ikenna Nduanya, a 34-year-old Nigerian, was sentenced to death for transporting heroin from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City.

Anyone found guilty of possessing more than 600 grammes of heroin or over 20 kilos of opium faces the death penalty in communist Vietnam.

Under a decision approved by Vietnam's National Assembly, execution by lethal injection is to replace the firing squad on July 1 this year.
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