AUSTRALIA/VIETNAM: Appeal trial delayed for Australian on death row in Vietnam

The appeal of an Australian woman sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug trafficking has been delayed because the presiding judge is in hospital, officials and diplomats said Friday.

 Le My Linh, who is of Vietnamese origin, was handed the death penalty on August 28 by a court in the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City where she was arrested on November 17 last year while trying to fly to Australia.

 The 43-year-old Sydney woman, who was convicted of possessing 888 grams (31 ounces) of heroin and 209 grams of diazepam, an anti-anxiety drug, lodged an appeal on September 6 for her death sentence to be reduced to a prison term.

 However, court officials in Ho Chi Minh City said the judge, Chau Minh Duc, had been taken to hospital for undisclosed treatment and the proceedings would not go ahead.

 Brett Farmer, the Australian consul in Hanoi, said the mission was informed late Thursday about the temporary suspension of the appeal trial.

 "We have not been told of a new date yet," he said.

 Should her appeal fail, Linh has the option of applying for clemency from President Tran Duc Luong in a last ditch effort to avoid the firing squad.

 This has to be lodged within 7 days.

 Linh's death sentence triggered an outcry in Australia, and prompted Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to write to his counterpart, Nguyen Dy Nien, expressing his deep opposition to the use of capital punishment.

 Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. Anyone found in possession of 300 grams or more of heroin, or over 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of opium, faces the death penalty.

 Vietnamese authorities have said Linh, who is a drug addict, was part of an international narcotics trafficking network and has admitted to receiving 30,000 US dollars from another Australian of Vietnamese origin to take the drugs to Australia.

 Another Australian citizen of Vietnamese origin, Nguyen Thi Kim Hieu, 34, was arrested in January of this year for trafficking 800 grams of heroin from Ho Chi Minh City to Australia.

 She has yet to be brought to trial but could also face the death penalty.

 8 foreign drug traffickers have been executed in Vietnam since 1995, when Wong Chi-Sing from Hong Kong was put to death for trafficking 5 kilograms of heroin.

 Last year 55 people were executed by firing squad on drug trafficking charges.