Vietnamese gets 13 years for Thailand bomb plot

BANGKOK: -- A Thai court has sentenced a Vietnamese man thought to be part of a California-based anti-communist group to 13-½ years in jail for trying to bomb the Vietnam embassy in Bangkok in 2001, officials say.

A Bangkok criminal court heard that Nguyen Thanh Hien, 41, and two other men believed to be members of the Free Vietnam Movement, assembled two bombs in Thailand that could be triggered by mobile phone.

One device was stuffed into a backpack and left outside the Vietnamese embassy in the commercial heart of the Thai capital. The second was thrown over the wall of the embassy compound.

Police defused both bombs, which were made of several kilograms of fertiliser, but said at the time they thought neither of them had been intended to go off since their detonators contained no explosives.

Nguyen Thanh Hien's original sentence of 20 years and three months, handed down on Thursday, was reduced to 13-½ years because he had confessed to the crime, court officials said on Friday.

Thailand is also seeking the extradition of Nguyen Thanh Hien's suspected accomplice, Nguyen Hu Tran, who left the southeast Asian nation for the United States, the officials added.

--Reuters 2004-06-18

What a dirtbag. Should get the death penalty rather than have to tap into the peoples earnings ( taxes) to support this creep.

Mr Vietnam