BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - An overseas Vietnamese whose "anything-goes" birthday

party at a luxury Ho Chi Minh city hotel was raided by police has been sentenced

to 18 months in prison, the official Vietnam News Agency reported.

Police found some 40 men and women "indulging in a boisterous and scandalous

dance" when they broke up the birthday celebration last December for Ly Hong

"Pierre" Tan, said the report.

Tan, a resident of France, had sent out party invitations showing male and female

sex organs, the news agency said. A tree at the party was festooned with condoms,

with hypodermic needles strewn underneath.

Among those who appeared in court with Tan on Feb. 27 were a well-known singer and

a popular actress who attended the "immoral" fete, Ho Chi Minh city's Tuoi

Tre newspaper reported.

The court convicted Tan of "dissemination of depraved culture, abuse of democratic

freedoms to damage state interests" and resisting arrest, the news agency said.

Four others received nine-month suspended sentences.