A Vietnamese woman, who claims to have been married into a family of heroin traffickers has sought refugee status in Vancouver saying she will be executed if returned to her homeland.

The case is expected to test the freshly repaired diplomatic relations between Canada and Vietnam - a bond that was broken after a Canadian citizen was executed in a Hanoi jail in April 2000.

In that case Vietnam executed Nguyen Thi Hiep, who had been convicted of heroin smuggling despite Canadian requests that Vietnam consider evidence indicating the Toronto woman had been framed.

Canada recalled its ambassador and cancelled negotiations on millions of dollars in foreign aid to Vietnam after Ms. Nguyen's execution but relations were normalized after the woman's mother was allowed to return to Toronto.

"This new case in B.C. is going to have all kinds of ramifications," said an Immigration Canada official. "What are we going to trust...this womans story or Vietnam's version of events."

"In the Thi Hiep case Vietnam promised to hold off the execution until the new evidence was looked at..they did not do that."

Sources said the latest incident involves a Vietnamese woman who arrived with another woman and a Thai man at the Vancouver International Airport two weeks ago. The Thai man, according to the source was allowed to leave Canada voluntarily.

The two women have been released on bonds of C$5,000 each after Immigration detention reviews in Vancouver.

Both women were allegedly carrying doctored Australian passports.

The Asian Pacific Post has learned that one of the women is wanted by Vietnamese authorities in connection with a major drug trafficking case that has seen members of her husband's family being sentenced to death.

The woman, who has two sisters in the Vancouver area, claims she has no knowledge of the drug trafficking activities.

She has told Immigration Canada officials that she faces the firing squad if returned to Vietnam and has applied for refugee status.

If she is to be deported, Canada will ask for Vietnamese assurances that she does not face the death penalty.

"They have shown to be unreliable on their word," said a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer. "I do not know how much Canada can trust any assurance from Vietnam."

"On the other hand, if this woman is allowed to stay are we opening the gates for others in a similar situation," said the lawyer.

Vietnam has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. Anyone found in possession of 300 grams or more of heroin, or over 10 kilograms of opium, faces the death penalty.

Last year 55 people were handed the death penalty for drug trafficking in Vietnam, compared with 85 in 2000 and 76 in 1999.

In addition to the Canadian national being executed last April, seven other foreign drug traffickers have been executed in Vietnam since1995. International human rights groups have repeatedly urged communist Vietnam to abolish or issue a moratorium on the death penalty.

"We condemn this latest execution. We don't believe the death penalty is an effective deterrent and we urge Vietnam to abolish this barbaric practice," Amnesty International spokeswoman Teresa Richardson said after the latest firing squad execution in Hanoi on Sept 27.

In that case, 29-year-old Duong Van Tien was blindfolded and tied to a stake at the Cau Nga execution site on the outskirts of Hanoi and shot.

He was handed the death sentences in 1999 after being caught in possession of 4.2 kilograms (nine pounds four ounces) of heroin and 2.3 kilograms of opium, its unrefined derivative.

Tien's appeal for clemency from President Tran Duc Luong was rejected earlier this month.