Thai Woman given death sentence by Vietnamese court

[Lite Beer]

Two foreign drug smugglers face Vietnam death penalty

HANOI, August 21, 2013 (AFP) - 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 (4.4 pounds) 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.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2013-08-21

[laurentbkk]

oh well , those "mules" know where they go and what they risk .... is it worth the money you receive ? I dont think so

[hanno]

Suracha told the court she did not know she was carrying the drugs

Right, she flies from Brazil to carry two photo albums and thinks that is normal?

[travelman]

Better to die hungry instead of facing death penalty and sufferings to your beloved ones.

[Calach]

Dont't do the crime if you can't do the time, they knew what they were risking, bla bla bla...still, death penalty is barbarian and sickening.

[uty6543]

I do support the use of the death penalty but from the limited information cannot be 100% sure of her guilt. If she was duped into carrying the drugs unknowingly she did nothing wrong and I hope it can be proved in time.

[hanno]

I do support the use of the death penalty but from the limited information cannot be 100% sure of her guilt. If she was duped into carrying the drugs unknowingly she did nothing wrong and I hope it can be proved in time.

Nope. We are talking Vietnam here; it is not like she can take it to a higher court. Maybe she was duped but. coming from Thailand no less, she thought she was going to get money to carry photo albums from Brazil to Vietnam?

[Redhawk]

What are the criteria you need to meet to be executed immediately when you are already sentenced to death?! Being a stinker? Sometimes hard to understand what kind of crap journalist put together and or government officials!

[unanimosity]

I do support the use of the death penalty but from the limited information cannot be 100% sure of her guilt. If she was duped into carrying the drugs unknowingly she did nothing wrong and I hope it can be proved in time.

Unless it has changed very recently, they always ask if anyone else packed your bags or gave you anything to carry for them. Case closed.

[Spoonman]

Guess she wont be doing that again !!

[nami]

Legalization now! Nobody is forced to use them so don't start with the ruining lives etc

Death penalty is outrageous by itself, but for drugs it is just crazy. Legalize and tax it, simple.

Edited August 21, 2013 by nami

[klauskunkel]

I do support the use of the death penalty but from the limited information cannot be 100% sure of her guilt. If she was duped into carrying the drugs unknowingly she did nothing wrong and I hope it can be proved in time.

Unless it has changed very recently, they always ask if anyone else packed your bags or gave you anything to carry for them. Case closed.

Yes, I packed my bag. But I have not seen it between check-in and arrival, so I don't know if anybody has messed with it.

[hanno]

Legalization now! Nobody is forced to use them so don't start with the ruining lives etc

Death penalty is outrageous by itself, but for drugs it is just crazy. Legalize and tax it, simple.

Weed? Yes. Cocaine, Meth, Yaba? No <deleted> way!

[F4UCorsair]

I do support the use of the death penalty but from the limited information cannot be 100% sure of her guilt. If she was duped into carrying the drugs unknowingly she did nothing wrong and I hope it can be proved in time.

Unless it has changed very recently, they always ask if anyone else packed your bags or gave you anything to carry for them. Case closed.

Yes, I packed my bag. But I have not seen it between check-in and arrival, so I don't know if anybody has messed with it.

That's the pitiful defence Schapelle Corby, an Australian sentenced to 20 years in Bali, used. She contended that she checked in a boogie board in Australia, weight less than 1 Kg and about 10 cm thick, picked it up in Bali, weight now 6.5 Kgs, and close to 25 cm thick, and didn't notice the difference in weight or size!!! She was apprehended by Customs.

She's coming up to 10 years now, and sick to death of Nasi Goreng!!

It would be difficult to imagine the intellect of someone who is paid to carry photo albums from Brazil to Vietnam and thinks that's normal, but the article said she was a graduate.........from the university of gross stupidity??

Edited August 21, 2013 by F4UCorsair

[gopis108]

Really I do not understand why there are so many persons opposed to the death penalty---perhaps they are chiefly ignorant christians who suffer under the illusion that this present body is the only human life we will ever have,while in fact even their own scripture recognizes eternal life.It is a fact that no living being can ever die.The spirit or the life power within the body cannot die so in fact death is just a change of body,so what is the problem in killing a person who richly deserves to be relieved of the human form.That person has willingly risked losing it and so be it.That person will gradually evolve through the species to one day again have the opportunity to enjoy a human body and perhaps the next time he does have it he may use it properly, to get the hell out of hell and not come back.Read Bhagavada Gita AS it is if you dont believe me.It is online and free.

[F4UCorsair]

Legalization now! Nobody is forced to use them so don't start with the ruining lives etc

Death penalty is outrageous by itself, but for drugs it is just crazy. Legalize and tax it, simple.

And thereby create another situation as has been with cigarettes. Smokers pay about 10% of the total health expenses associated with their addiction, and frankly, I find it offensive that the taxpayer picks up the rest.

Legalize anything if you wish, but the cost must reflect what is spent on medical expenses for those using the 'product'. Cigarettes should be $100+ a pack of 20 if the system is to recoup even close to the costs of treating smoking related illnesses. Alternatively, state resources should not be provided to a person who has inflicted illness or injury on himself through drug use, or any number of other health issues over which he has had control, e.g., obesity, except where there are contributing medical causes.

Edited August 21, 2013 by F4UCorsair

[Cheapcharly]

When people offer you 3000$ to carry something, it s 100%drug.

And look at these mules , they have money for tattoo, beer,...

Excuse is debt but still manage to get more money and more debt until one day their love for more money push them to become a mule. They are professional. If they want money they can work, or run a business or steal...

One is stopped, 15x pass.

Not the first time for them to bring this shit. They do it several times a year. Tons of drug are brought this way. 3 kg seized one day, 50kg go through.

You must be ignorant if you think it s the first time she Does that and been caught the first time.

This drug push people to steal and kill. Yaba, héroïne, ice, it s all the same shit.

[dirKNirk]

Legalization now! Nobody is forced to use them so don't start with the ruining lives etc

Death penalty is outrageous by itself, but for drugs it is just crazy. Legalize and tax it, simple.

 

And thereby create another situation as has been with cigarettes.  Smokers pay about 10% of the total health expenses associated with their addiction, and frankly, I find it offensive that the taxpayer picks up the rest.

 

Legalize anything if you wish, but the cost must reflect what is spent on medical expenses for those using the 'product'.  Cigarettes should be $100+ a pack of 20 if the system is to recoup even close to the costs of treating smoking related illnesses.

Your argument might make sense if keeping things illegal actually kept people from doing it.

The amount of money to be made off of legalizing and taxing drugs is staggering, and the amount to be saved from not policing and housing non-violent drug offenders is likewise staggering.

Remember, weed, coke, heroine, meth are not cigarettes.

Sent from my ZP800H using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[DGIE]

Good for them who did the 'drug' business.

They thought of instant big money and if

not lucky, instant death

[ppmacready]

Dont't do the crime if you can't do the time, they knew what they were risking, bla bla bla...still, death penalty is barbarian and sickening.

You can't fix stupid.

The death penalty indisputably works.

They never re offend!

Murder Rape Running drugs - its the perfect sentence!

[SOTIRIOS]

....graduate.....implying what.....educated???

...then how to not wonder why they couldn't simply ship the 'photo albums'....

...maybe the payoff she was receiving should have raised suspicion...

...another load of crock...another Thai trying to explain away their crime...

[marell]

I do support the use of the death penalty but from the limited information cannot be 100% sure of her guilt. If she was duped into carrying the drugs unknowingly she did nothing wrong and I hope it can be proved in time.

Unbelievable, but it seems there actually are a few people (not saying that's the case here) who are naive/oblivious/dumb enough to get duped into this insanity. Sad. But if someone is not smart enough to see through the scam, they're also probably not smart enough to prove their stupidity in court.

Edited August 21, 2013 by marell

[mikemac]

I believe if you are a Vietnamese national convicted of dealing/possessing large quantities you are immediately executed if found guilty, no right to appeal.

[Just1Voice]

Som nom na

[Beetlejuice]

It`s amazing that all these drug mules each claim they are innocent and knew nothing about the drugs they were carrying. I would describe them more as jackasses rather than mules.

Similar to the two British girls being held in Peru at the moment.

Does not matter whether they receive the death penalty of life imprisonment, as long as these transporters of poison are taken out of society. I do realise that this woman will soon be replaced, but every little helps, at least it`s one less.

[Confuscious]

Legalization now! Nobody is forced to use them so don't start with the ruining lives etc

Death penalty is outrageous by itself, but for drugs it is just crazy. Legalize and tax it, simple.

And thereby create another situation as has been with cigarettes. Smokers pay about 10% of the total health expenses associated with their addiction, and frankly, I find it offensive that the taxpayer picks up the rest.

Legalize anything if you wish, but the cost must reflect what is spent on medical expenses for those using the 'product'. Cigarettes should be $100+ a pack of 20 if the system is to recoup even close to the costs of treating smoking related illnesses. Alternatively, state resources should not be provided to a person who has inflicted illness or injury on himself through drug use, or any number of other health issues over which he has had control, e.g., obesity, except where there are contributing medical causes.

You are completely ignorant about the causes of obesity.

In my family, everybody is obese.

Whatever we try, we are still obese.

I take medication for hyper-tension and these type of medication makes me look obese.

In the morning, when I stand up of my bed, I can fit a size 38 trousers.

By the midday, I am completely swollen from water which is produced by the interaction from the medication and my body.

A size 46 trousers fits hardly.

Before calling people "obese", you should think first if they really had control over it.

[99 Green Bottles]

Another sad story of silliness

[BTStraveller]

Legalise murder?....oh that's right, the Vietnamese government already has!

I once met a guy who had lived on death row in the US for TEN years...before the courts changed their mind and decided he was not guilty of the crime (murder, in his case) he was accused of after all. I met him when he was travelling and speaking out against this barbaric form of punishment that has been proven to not even serve as a deterrent to this obscene crime.

For the last ten years or more there have been coalition troops walking past the poppy fields in Afghanistan - but not destroying them as you would think would be prudent is tackling what is essentially a health issue of drug addiction throughout the world, especially given that 97% of the worlds heroin is produced from the poppies in Afghanistan. The issue appears to suit some governments on the one hand, but not other governments on the other.

Aside from that, it must be a hell of a person who decides on someone elses life.

Edited August 21, 2013 by BTStraveller

[BTStraveller]

Legalization now! Nobody is forced to use them so don't start with the ruining lives etc

Death penalty is outrageous by itself, but for drugs it is just crazy. Legalize and tax it, simple.

And thereby create another situation as has been with cigarettes. Smokers pay about 10% of the total health expenses associated with their addiction, and frankly, I find it offensive that the taxpayer picks up the rest.

Legalize anything if you wish, but the cost must reflect what is spent on medical expenses for those using the 'product'. Cigarettes should be $100+ a pack of 20 if the system is to recoup even close to the costs of treating smoking related illnesses. Alternatively, state resources should not be provided to a person who has inflicted illness or injury on himself through drug use, or any number of other health issues over which he has had control, e.g., obesity, except where there are contributing medical causes.

No, don't ever legalize hard drugs. Decriminalize it, but only for users. Script it to addicts and watch them as they ingest it, so they can't on-sell it, and treat it as the health problem that it really is. Big difference. Ask any junkie if they are happy to be a junkie. They aren't! The are sick!

Traffickers should be dealt with appropriately, 5 -10 years should sort them - and that's still more than what most pedophiles get :-( But then if addicts had access to their drugs in a clinically managed way most traffickers would be out of work anyway.

And as for cigarettes, governments everywhere are addicted to the huge taxes they collect from tobacco companies - and it's not like they put the money back into health systems to pay the costs for smokers dying from tobacco related illnesses.

[johnlandy]

Only a couple of words, if you are driven by greed "som nam naa"

Just a variation on Hitler's cleansing program.