Sep 19, 2007, 3:49 GMT
Hanoi - A court in southern Vietnam has sentenced an Australian man of Vietnamese origin to death for trafficking heroin, a court official said Wednesday.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court handed the death sentence to Tony Manh, 40, whose original Vietnamese name is Nguyen Hong Viet, after a one-day trial Tuesday, said deputy chief judge of the court Vu Phi Long.
Manh was arrested at Tan Son Nhat Airport in March this year as he was about to board a plane to Sydney with 948 grams of heroin hidden in his underwear.
He confessed at the court that he was hired by another man for 10,000 dollars to transport the heroin to Australia, according to the judge.
The court also ordered Tony Manh to pay a cash fine of 50 million dong (3,125 dollars).
Possessing, trafficking or transporting 600 grams or more of heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam.
Vietnam has sentenced at least 60 people to death since the beginning of this year, including 38 death sentences for drug crimes.
Several Vietnamese-Australians have been sentenced to death in recent years for drug crimes, but so far none have been executed and several have had their sentences commuted to life.
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