Cases: Le Manh Luong (Vietnam)
Le Manh Luong was born in Vietnam in 1960 and is one of 10 children.
In 1980, Luong fled the Vietnamese communist regime for Hong Kong and travelled on to the UK in 1983. He became a British citizen and began working as a car mechanic in South London. He has two British sons who, along with his extended family, still live in South East London. He travelled to Vietnam in 2004.
Luong was arrested on 25 June 2004 at the Cha Lo border between Vietnam and Laos. He was charged and convicted of trafficking of heroin, illegally buying and selling a pistol and bullets, and forgery of identity documents. Luong was convicted along with Tran Thi Hien (also a British citizen, who was sentenced to life imprisonment), four Vietnamese and two Laotians.
Luong was sentenced to death by the People’s Court, Quang Binh Province, on 25 November 2006. The British Embassy were contacted a month after Luong was arrested and have provided information and support to him and his family.
Reprieve dispatched a member of staff to Vietnam to make contact with Luong, his family and his lawyers; and to investigate his case. Luong’s appeal to the Vietnamese Supreme Court was rejected on 6 April 2007. This meant that his last hope of avoiding execution was with an application for clemency to the Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet.
During the investigation, Reprieve learned that Luong suffered brain damage after a B52 American bomber dropped a bomb on his house during the Vietnam War. Reprieve was able to supplement Luong’s clemency petition with an expert report from a consultant psychiatrist and a report on the international trend towards the abolition of the death penalty, especially for the mentally ill. Reprieve also led a campaign for his sentence to be commuted, which attracted widespread support. Letters were written to the Vietnamese President from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, MPs, the President of the European Union, MEPs, the Mayor of London and the Bishop of Westminster, among others. A petition was also set up which was signed by over 1,400 people.
On 28 March, we were informed by the British Embassy in Hanoi that Luong’s sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment. Mr Luong will now be transferred to the general prison population to serve his life sentence, where he is no longer shackled for 24 hours a day, and free of the threat of execution.
|
Click here
Click here.
Click here.
Click here.
Click here.
