Australia pressures Vietnam over death sentence

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Australia still supports firm penalties for drug trafficking

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- The Australian government will push to have a death sentence commuted for a woman found guilty of drug trafficking in Vietnam.

On Wednesday, the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City found Australian citizen Le My Linh guilty of illegally transporting drugs. She was sentenced to death by firing squad.

Linh is appealing the conviction and the sentence.

Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday his government would seek to have the sentence commuted to a custodial one if the conviction is upheld upon appeal.

Linh, who was born in Vietnam, was arrested at Tan Son Nhat Airport in November last year and found to be in possession of 881.8 grams (2 lbs) of heroin and 10 packages of addictive medicines.

She told Vietnamese authorities she had been hired by a drug dealer to take the heroin to Australia in return for Aust. $30,000 ($16,500).

Downer said in a statement that Australia was "consistently opposed to capital punishment and supports its abolition."

He said Australia had twice put its position to the Vietnamese government and he had written to Vietnam's Foreign Minister Ngyuen Dy Nien on Wednesday concerning the matter.

Penalty abolished

"If the death penalty is imposed and confirmed on appeal we will seek to have the sentence commuted to a custodial sentence," he said.

Last year, 55 people were executed by firing squad on drug-related charges in Vietnam.

Australia abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 1985, with the last person to be executed, Ronald Ryan, hanged in 1967.

Relations with Malaysia were strained in 1986 after Australia unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the execution of two Australians, Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, also on drug-related charges.

Downer said Australia's opposition to the death penalty and concerns about Linh's sentence did not diminish Australia's continued support for firm penalties for drug trafficking offences.