[Vnbiz] Vietnam death row prisoner found pregnant, gets life instead

[Phan, Tai]

Vietnam death row prisoner found pregnant, gets life instead
(DPA)

12 October 2006 



HANOI - A woman sentenced to death in Vietnam for smuggling heroin and supposedly detained in isolation has become pregnant and had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment, her lawyer said on Thursday.


Nguyen Thi Oanh was sentenced to face a firing squad on 28 April this year but on 15 September she was found to be 11 weeks pregnant - suggesting that she conceived the baby in late June.

Her lawyer, Nguyen Hong Bach from the firm Pham Hong Hai and Associates, said that now both Mrs Oanh and her unborn baby will be allowed to live.

"It means that she will avoid the death sentence and will face a life sentence instead," he said.

Under Article 35 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, the death sentence cannot be applied to pregnant women or women with children under the age of three at the time of crime or the trial.

Mr Bach said that his client hasn't told him who the father is and that, "the possibility that she was raped is not excluded."

Another lawyer from the same firm, Le Van Kien, said that the baby will be delivered in the prison health centre and will be allowed to stay with its mother until he or she is three years old, after breast-feeding has finished.

After that, the mother can decide whether to keep the child with her or have her looked after outside.

Mr Nhu Binh, the chief supervisor of Hoa Binh Detention Centre where Mrs Oanh is being held, denied knowledge of her situation.

"I haven't heard about this case," he said. "I'm not responsible for answering questions about it."

Mrs Oanh was originally arrested as she traveled back to the capital Hanoi from the province of Hoa Binh, about 100 kilometres to the south-west.

Police quoted in the local newspaper Lao Dong said she had brought one billion Vietnamese Dong (about 62,000 dollars) to the province in order to buy heroin.

Mr Bach said that Mrs Oanh's husband had already been imprisoned in the province of Vinh Phuc before his wife was sentenced.

Local newspaper Lao Dong quoted an official from the justice department as saying that becoming pregnant while in solitary confinement is a rare event in Vietnam.