Nguyen Thi Hue, was arrested in the coastal province of Quang Ninh in 2012 on charges of drug trafficking, local newspaper Thanh Nien News reports. She was sentenced to death two years later.
When she appealed, the court upheld her sentence, according to the Associated Press. But it looks like Hue will avoid the death penalty after all.
The Vietnamese penal code forbids the execution of pregnant women or mothers with children under the age of 36 months and orders that in those cases the death penalty should be converted to life imprisonment.
Investigators discovered that Hue paid a 27-year-old male inmate more than $2,000 in August 2015 for his semen and syringes, which they say she used to inseminate herself. The baby is due in April, and Hue's sentence will officially be reduced to life imprisonment after the birth.
Four officers at the prison have been suspended for alleged negligence, the Associated Press report.
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