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Hanoi: An appeals court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced an Australian woman to death for heroin trafficking, a court official said on Wednesday.
Vietnam-born Jasmine Luong, 34, of Sydney, was convicted during a one-day trial of trafficking 3 pounds of heroin.
Luong was caught with the drug hidden in her shoes and luggage in February last year at the Ho Chi Minh City airport, while preparing to board a flight to Sydney.
Last December, a lower court sentenced her to life in prison, but prosecutors appealed the ruling.
Luong told judges Tuesday she was hired by an unidentified man to ship the heroin to Australia for about $15,000 and was given about $4,700 in advance. The rest was to be paid in Australia.
The people's court had spared Luong the death penalty in December last year, citing her two young children as a mitigating circumstance.
The appeals court decided to sentence her to death because the amount of heroin she transported was very high, and her children were already more than 10 years old.
Only people with children under 3 years old are exempt from the death sentence in Vietnam.
Several Vietnamese-Australians have been sentenced to death in recent years for drug crimes, but to date none have been executed and several have had their sentences commuted to life in prison.
Vietnam has this year sentenced at least 14 people to death, including nine for drug crimes.
The country has some of the world's toughest drug laws. Possessing, trading or trafficking more than 1.3 pounds of heroin or 44 pounds of opium is punishable by death or life in prison.
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