HANOI, May 26 — Two men were arrested in Vietnam over the murder of an Australian reportedly linked to organised crime, police said today.
Lorenzo Lemalu was shot dead on Thursday outside a seafood restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, police said in a statement, adding that another Australian was seriously wounded in the same incident.
Lemalu was suspected by Australian police of being a senior member of a Sydney organised crime group, according to Australian media reports.
Vietnamese police arrested two suspects in the shooting, both of Samoan nationality.
They “were apprehended while hiding in the border area between Vietnam and Cambodia less than 72 hours after committing the crime”, according to the police statement.
Police said the two suspects confessed, admitting they carried out the shooting under the direction of an individual abroad.
Eight Vietnamese were arrested in the same case for helping in the escape and failing to report the crime.
Shootings are rare in communist Vietnam, where ownership of guns is illegal and people are encouraged to surrender weapons to authorities. — AFP
