BRITAIN:A BRAIN-DAMAGED London man who faced death by firing squad in Vietnam after being convicted of heroin smuggling has had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, it emerged yesterday.
Le Manh Luong (47), who is of Vietnamese origin, was taken off death row where he was shackled all day after the president granted him clemency last month. British diplomats in Hanoi confirmed Luong, a former car mechanic, from southeast London, had been transferred to a cell with other inmates.
No explanation was given for president Nguyen Minh Triet's decision, but Tony Blair made a direct appeal while he was prime minister, a plea bolstered by ministers and diplomats.
Luong's niece, Thanh Le, said: "Now we [ his family] can visit him and he will have the horrific ankle and wrist shackles removed." Luong was one of the boat people who fled the communist regime in 1980, landing in Hong Kong before arriving in London in 1983, where he was given British citizenship. He lost part of his brain and spent two years in hospital as a seven-year-old after an American B-52 bombed his family's house during the Vietnam war.
With another Vietnamese-born Briton, four Vietnamese and two Laotians, he was caught in June 2004 trying to smuggle a total of 65kg of heroin worth £3.9m from Laos to Hong Kong through Vietnam.
During his four-day trial at Dong Hoi, Luong appeared to have difficulty following the proceedings. He was heard to say: "What is heroin?" and "What is a weapon?" during evidence.
He was sentenced to death in November 2006 and after losing his appeal last year could have been executed at any time.
Just one other convicted foreign national has been executed - a Canadian of Vietnamese origin in 1999 - although Vietnam is estimated to execute 100 people every year.