Drugs Prosecutions in Vietnam: The Modern Propaganda Trial

Drug trials in Indonesia and Singapore involving Australians have received a lot of media attention since the arrest of Schapelle Corby in Bali in 2004 and the execution of Van Nguyen in Singapore in 2005. By contrast, the plight of Australians prosecuted for drug offences in Vietnam has been relatively unexplored, despite the fact that 16 Australians were tried for drug-related offences in the period from 1999 to early 2008. This article seeks to redress this gap by analysing the nature of the Vietnamese criminal courts and the extent to which Vietnamese drug laws, in particular the recently reformed Criminal Code 1999 and the Criminal Procedure Code 2003, have changed the prosecution and defence of drug-related offences. The authors argue that drug-related trials remain propaganda trials rather than spaces in which the guilt or innocence of the accused is established. Understanding that the Vietnamese criminal court operates to confirm guilt, rather than establish it, reinforces the importance of extra-legal strategies, such as the use of the media and clemency applications, when acting as defence counsel in Vietnam.