VIETNAM. AUSTRALIAN CONVICTED OF SMUGGLING SPARED DEATH PENALTY

Trinh Huu, an Australian national convicted of drug smuggling, was spared death by firing squad when the Vietnamese government granted him clemency. Trinh, 53, was sentenced to be executed in December 2005 after being found guilty of trafficking about two kilograms heroin. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer welcomed Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet's decision to commute Trinh's death sentence to life imprisonment following diplomatic representations from the Australian government.
Trinh was arrested near Vietnam's border with Cambodia in December 2004 along with three Vietnamese accomplices, who received jail terms ranging from 15 years to life.
An appeals court in Vietnam upheld Trinh's death sentence in April 2006, leaving clemency his last hope.