Australian heroin trafficker Tran Van Thanh has been spared death by firing squad after winning a presidential reprieve in Vietnam.
He will now spend the rest of his life in prison.
Tran's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer made direct appeals to Vietnam for clemency.
"I pleaded with the Vietnamese government to exercise clemency,&qu
ot; Mr Downer told reporters.
Forty-year-old Tran, originally from Sydney, was sentenced to death in November last year after he was found guilty of trafficking 682 grams of heroin.
Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and anyone found in possession
of 300 grams or more of heroin can face the death penalty.
Vietnamese president Tran Duc Luong cited humanitarian grounds and the good relationship between Australia and Vietnam when he announced his decision this week.
The government will now turn its attention to the cases of two other Australians on death row in Vietnam.
