Canada condemned Vietnam for executing Nguyen Thi Hiep,...

Canada condemned Vietnam for executing Nguyen Thi Hiep, a Vietnamese-born Canadian citizen convicted of drug trafficking, on April 24. Nguyen was arrested at Hanoi airport in April 1996 after customs officials found 2.4 pounds (1 kg) of heroin hidden in her luggage. She was convicted in March 1997 of drug trafficking and sentenced to death. Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said in a statement that Vietnam, as a signatory to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, was obliged to impose the death penalty for only the most serious crimes. "We do not believe that Ms. Nguyen's conviction for drug trafficking meets this standard," he said. Raymond Chan, Canada's secretary of state for the Asia-Pacific region, said Ottawa had provided Vietnam with information suggesting Nguyen might have been tricked into transporting the heroin. "Canadian police officials were to go to Vietnam to assist in the examination of this information, and this visit was pending at the time of the execution," Chan said. "It is most unfortunate that the Vietnamese government chose to ignore pertinent information that might have saved Ms. Nguyen's life."