Forty-six year old Mai Cong Thanh and 45 year old Nguyen Van Chinh have both been given reprieves after successful lobbying from the Australian government.
According to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald, the Vietnamese President Tran Duc Long advised the Australian government yesterday of its decision, citing a “humane tradition” and a good bilateral relationship between the two countries.
Mr Howard personally lobbied for clemency for the pair when he attended the East Asia summit in Malaysia last year.
A third Australian, Trinh Hu, was sentenced to death in December and remains on death row.
In light of the government’s success with Vietnam, Tim Lindsay from Amnesty International has said there is no reason why diplomatic efforts would not work for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Bali.
“We’ve got a country who executes a very large number of people every year has seen fit to still grant clemency to individuals (…) convicted of drugs charges and I think that should be very encouraging in our efforts to convince Indonesia to do the same,” Mr Lindsay told ABC radio.
Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd congratulated the government on its success in Vietnam but said an even greater effort may be required to see Chan, 21, and Sukumaran, 24, saved from execution.
“We commend him for that effort and we commend his efforts also in seeking a similar act of clemency in Indonesia, but that is still a long, long way to go,” Mr Rudd told ABC radio.
Chan and Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the Australian drug smuggling group known as the Bali Nine, were sentenced to death in Bali last week.
The seven other Bali Nine Australians were sentenced to life imprisonment.
In December, Singapore hanged Melbourne-based drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van amid strong public outcry in Australia.