Vietnam killer wins plea to be executed

HANOI, Mar 23 (Reuters) A Vietnamese man sentenced to life in jail for killing his girlfriend has won his appeal to be executed by firing squad to show remorse, state media reported today.

Le Huy Hoang, 27, strangled his girlfriend in July 2004 as she tried to leave his car after a traffic accident in which Hoang killed a motorist and critically injured a woman in Ho Chi Minh City, the Tien Phong newspaper said.

Hoang fled the scene and had driven out of the city when she tried to leave him, the newspaper said.

Hoang, from Hanoi, was arrested a day after the accident when his car broke down and people who stopped to help saw the body of his girlfriend in the front seat and called the police.

He had tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide before he was detained, state media have said. He was sentenced only to life in prison but then wrote a letter to the appeal court saying ''My life is no longer meaningful and I could not be re-educated so I ask to take the death sentence.'' REUTERS SK KP1204