two lives shamefully saved
from AntBlog701

two lives shamefully saved

Today's news, two Australians on death row in Vietnam from the firing squad.
Who were those two?
The two are Nguyen Van Chinh, 45, of Sydney, and Mai Cong Thanh, 46, of Melbourne.

Why were they arrested?
Thanh, a 46-year-old Australian citizen from Melbourne, was arrested in June 2003 for trafficking 1.69kg of heroin. Van Chinh, a 45-year-old Vietnamese-born permanent resident living in Sydney, was arrested in December 2002 for trafficking 1.05kg of heroin.
Both were sentenced to death.

What happened?
Prime Minister John Howard lobbied for clemency for the pair when he attended the East Asia summit in Malaysia late last year. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also lobbied for them. Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong granted those two traffickers clemency.

What's wrong?
Australian Government has used its political power to intervene another country's jurisdiction. This is an extremely bad example set by those political figures. Australian citizens are not above the law, especially not above the laws of other countries. Australian does not mean death-free card when committing a crime in other countries.

Shame on Australia government.

News: PM saves death row pair (The Australian, Feb 18, 2006)