HONG KONG: A Hong Kong human rights group is calling for commutation of death sentences of five Chinese, including two men from Hong Kong, who face execution by firing squad in Vietnam.

The Hong Kong pair are among five Chinese who were sentenced to death by a Vietnamese court Friday for drug trafficking.

"The Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor believes death sentences should be avoided as far as possible ... and Vietnam should commute the death sentences to prison sentences," Monitor director Law Yuk-kai said.

Law said the government should also seek arrangements allowing for the two Hong Kong men to serve commuted sentences in the city.

Local residents, 50-year-old Chan Kwok-kwon and 42-year-old Ngan Chiu-kuen, are to be executed by firing squad along with 52-year-old Lu Mingcheng, 42-year-old Wan Huilan of Guangdong and 52-year-old Leong Chi-kai from Macao.

The five had been handed the death penalty after a four-day trial in what was described as one of the nation's biggest drug busts, according to Vietnamese state media.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and Quang Ninh police seized two containers filled with 7.9 tons of hashish valued at $80 million at the local Mong Cai border gate in May of last year.

The northern Vietnamese province where the men were sentenced Friday shares a land border with China.

Inspectors said the bust was the outcome of an investigation which began in June 2007. Vietnamese authorities say the drugs had come from Pakistan.

The hashish was hidden in a shipment of 19,758 pairs of denim jeans from the Vietnamese port of Hai Phong, according to the country's Tuoi Tre newspaper.

It said the drugs were to be distributed on the mainland through a Hong Kong-based drug ring.

Court documents said Cheng was hired by two Hong Kong-based men known as "A Giai" and "A Tran" to transfer the drug and blue jeans-filled containers to Canada for HK$1.5 million, according to the Thanh Nien newspaper.

Anti-drug laws in Vietnam are among the world's toughest, with roughly 100 people executed by firing squad each year for drug-related offences.

An Immigration Department spokeswoman said the government has been in contact with the convicted men's families since May 2008. Through the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the HKSAR, it has also maintained contact with the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam.

She added the department would stay in contact and would render all possible assistance.

(HK Edition 12/29/2009 page1)