Australian woman to face firing squad

[Mugu]

Sadie Gray and agencies

An Australian woman faces a firing squad after a Vietnamese appeal court sentenced her to death for heroin trafficking.

Jasmine Luong had been jailed for life by a lower court when she was convicted of attempting to smuggle 1.5kg of heroin on to a flight to Australia.

But the prosecution appealed, pushing for the death penalty, and yesterday the appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City increased her sentence, the state-run newspaper Liberation Saigon said.

Luong, 34, who lives in Sydney, has 15 days to appeal directly to the president, Nguyen Minh Triet. She was arrested in February last year at Tan Son Nhat international airport in Ho Chi Minh City, while boarding a flight. Customs officials found 1.5kg of heroin in her shoes and luggage.


Read complete article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/19/australia

[Indenturedebtor]

1. Holy SHIT!!!!!

Just for drug smuggling?

WTF?!?!?

The war on drugs is rediculous :(

Why don't they shoot all the doctors who prescribe oxycontin while they're at it?

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[OwnedByFerrets]

10. Thats a pretty heartless

statement from someone who doesnt know all the facts or even why she would attempt something evidently so insane. A reasonable person would assume that the circumstances had to be pretty dire to try to do something like this. Or maybe she was being blackmailed into doing this. Until one knows all the facts, one should keep them mouth shut, lest they look really fucking stupid.

[MrCoffee]

11. Simple greed isn't enough for you?

Not to defend the sentence, but she stood to make $15,000 for the trip. Why would they pay her anything if they were blackmailing her?

[Slagathor]

15. The irony of it all is that I was posting against capital punishment

and yet was called heartless... WTF internets?

[MrCoffee]

2. The prosecution appealed the life sentence to go for the death penalty????

And people in here think the US criminal justice system is screwed up...

[XOKCowboy]

4. Hard to know how to feel about this....

On one hand we have a heroin smuggler. Good riddance. OTOH a FIRING SQUAD? She's most likely just a mule. Now the people who were going to give her $15000 to carry the drugs? A firing squad is too good for them. I think they should be overdosed slowly with their own drugs.

[Slagathor]

6. How does one overdose slowly on heroin?

would that be like taking heroin for like a decade and then one day doing too much? that actually sounds like a pretty ideal way to die if you ask me.

[Richard Steele]

14. Go for it.

nm

[Slagathor]

16. Only if you're buying

I can do a lot of heroin. This is going to cost you.

[backscatter712]

8. Was she an intentional smuggler at all?

IIRC, there was a case in Indonesia where a young Australian woman faced years in prison and possible hanging for drug smuggling. As it turns out, she may have been completely innocent - the true drug smugglers were working as baggage handlers in Australian and Indonesian airports, and placed the heroin in her suitcase - that way, it's easy to recover the heroin on the other side, and if the heroin's caught, the hapless suitcase's owner is the one that's strung up.

[MrCoffee]

9. Read the article...she was a paid drug mule

"Luong told appeal court judges that an unidentified man had given her an advance of $4,700 (£2,350) to take the drug to Australia, where she would receive a further $10,300 (£5,150)."

[ProdigalJunkMail]

5. frequently asian cultures and muslim countries

are much more harsh on sentences for drug trafficking... if you are planning on moving drugs through those countries, you need to be prepared for what could happen to you if caught...

sP

[gilpo]

7. Midnight Express gone bad.... n/t

[hifalutin]

12. Surely she was aware of the consequences?

If she did, then she knew the risk she was taking and was dumb enough to think she could get away with it.
Sad either way.

[devilgrrl]

13. Didn't she know that only governments are allowed to traffic heroin?

What was she thinking?

[geardaddy]

17. Zing!

You should get a DUzy for that one.