On November 12, the Court of Appeal of Ho Chi Minh...

On November 12, the Court of Appeal of Ho Chi Minh City decided to uphold the death sentence on Tran Dam, head of a smuggling ring, and Phung Long That, former head of the Anti-smuggling Bureau (Ho Chi Minh City Customs Department), and life-imprisonment on Le Minh Xu, former director of Dat Viet Import-Export Co., for smuggling and taking bribes. They were sentenced to death by a Court of First Instance on April 29, when the Presiding Judge needed more than 2 hours to read the nearly 100-page verdict in a packed Ho Chi Minh courtroom, where the trial began on March 25 with 74 defendants, including former police, customs and government officials. The case captured public attention and alleges a major scam with goods worth around $71.3 million smuggled into Vietnam between 1994 and August 1997.