(VOVworld) – Vietnam has been consistent in strictly punishing drug trafficking and has always co-operated with other countries in preventing and fighting drug-related crimes, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said Sunday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh

Responding to reporters’ questions about Indonesia’s recent execution of Vietnamese citizen Tran Thi Bich Hanh, he said “Vietnamese diplomatic agencies carried out all available citizen protection measures in this case.” The Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia and other diplomatic agencies repeatedly asked Indonesian authorities to protect the legal rights of Vietnamese citizens and to consider reducing the sentence, Binh said. Hanh, who arrested in Indonesia in June, 2011, for carrying methamphetamines in her body, was sentenced to death in November of that year.