Vietnam executes gang leader

Nam Cam was tried along with 154 others

One of Vietnam's most notorious gangsters has been executed for murder and bribery along with four of his men.

Truong Van Cam, better known as Nam Cam (fifth orange), was sentenced to death last June, and lost an appeal later in the year.

He had been convicted of ordering the killing of an underworld rival and trying to bribe state officials.

He had been tried along with more than 150 co-defendants, including officials who profited from his illicit dealings.

"They were shot at dawn, around 5:30am (2230 GMT Wednesday)," said a police official in Ho Chi Minh City.

A sixth member of Nam Cam's gang had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment during appeal.

NAM CAM Once seen as one of Vietnam's most powerful figures Found guilty of murder, bribery and five other crimes 56-year-old father of eight Vietnam's Godfather

Among those tried with the gang were the former head of state radio who had been a member of the Communist Party's powerful central committee, a disgraced deputy chief prosecutor and a former deputy police minister.

In his appeal, Nam Cam had denied ordering the October 2000 killing of a rival, Dung Ha, who controlled a vast crime network in northern Vietnam.

"At first I admitted my responsibility for the murder of Dung Ha because my lawyer said I could then be eligible for clemency," he told the VnExpress online newspaper last year.

"But I think the death penalty handed to me is unjust and so I am appealing."