Vietnam clemency gives hope to Bali Nine

Vietnam has given 2 Australian drug traffickers clemency following an approach from the Australian government. Mai Cong Thanh, 46, and Nguyen Van Chinh, 45 were on death row in Vietnam, but the Vietnamese President, Tran Duc Luong gave them both clemency.

Vietnam has a history of executing drug traffickers and shows that a foreign government can lobby successfully to change a sentence. Two of the Bali Nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are facing the death penalty and Australia will try the same strategy. Maybe this precedent will give SBY the leeway he needs to let them off the hook.