VIETNAM. PRESIDENT COMMUTES DEATH PENALTY FOR MAN CONVICTED OF EMBEZZLEMENT

Vietnam's president commuted a death sentence on the former head of a state-run company found guilty of massive embezzlement, officials said. La Thi Kim Oanh, the former director of an investment and marketing company, was found guilty in December 2003 of misappropriating 4.7 million dollars and causing losses of 2.2 million dollars to state coffers from 1995 to 2001. The death sentence was later confirmed by an appeal court.
"A decision signed by President Nguyen Minh Triet Thursday commuted La Thi Kim Oanh's death penalty to life imprisonment," an official at the president's office told AFP without elaborating.
La Thi Kim Oanh, 51, had contested the embezzlement charges but admitted to mismanaging state funds.
Her company was under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
In the same case, two former deputy ministers were each sentenced to three years in jail by the Hanoi People's Court before getting their sentence suspended on appeal. The then minister of agriculture, Le Huy Ngo, was sacked.