five men sentenced to death for drug trafficking, murder and robbery were executed by firing squad

five men sentenced to death for drug trafficking, murder and robbery were executed by firing squad near Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. The executions took place at Long Binh at dawn and were carried out by 30 policemen. Chu Duc Hai, one of those put to death, had been sentenced in March 2004 for leading a gang of drug traffickers who smuggled 22 kilos of heroin from nearby Laos between 1998 and 2002.
The other four men, aged between 22 and 35, had been sentenced to death by the Ho Chi Minh Court in separate cases in 2004. The executions brought to 20 the number of people put to death in Vietnam so far in 2005. Moreover, according to local media, 70 death sentences had been handed out in the year, mainly for drug trafficking, and 31 of the sentences had been confirmed by higher courts.