The New York Times

Friday, July 2, 1999

Vietnam Pardons Drug Trafficker

By The Associated Press

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- President Tran Duc Luong has lifted the death sentence of a drug trafficker in reward for giving information that uncovered a major narcotics ring, a court official said Friday.

Nguyen Khanh Loc was pardoned by a presidential decision June 18, said Hoang Em, deputy chief of the People's Court of central Quang Tri province, where Loc is being detained.

Loc was arrested at a border checkpoint with Laos in January 1995 for trafficking 11 pounds of heroin. He was sentenced to death in February 1996.

Just before he was to have been executed in August 1997, Loc asked authorities to spare him in exchange for information on a large drug ring.

The information led to a large syndicate, and Loc proved a key witness in a trial that ended with three traffickers sentenced to death.

Drug trafficking has risen in communist-governed Vietnam in recent years. Courts nationwide last year issued a record 57 death sentences against traffickers.