Saturday, September 29, 2012

Filipina and Indonesian sentenced to death for drugs in Malaysia


Malaysian courts has sentenced two women, a Filipina and an Indonesian, to death in separate cases of drug trafficking, reports said Saturday, September 29.

The high court in Shah Alam, just outside Kuala Lumpur, handed the sentence to Marivelle Gonzales for trafficking a kilo of drugs, mostly heroin, into the country 2 years ago, the Bernama news agency reported.

The 31-year-old Filipina said a man had offered her $1,000, a work permit and $250 in expenses to bring in a bag containing the drugs.

Her lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Ani Anggraeni, an Indonesian working in the northern state of Penang as a domestic helper, was convicted Friday, September 28, of trafficking nearly 4 kilos (9 pounds) of methamphetamine on June 21 last year, The Star newspaper reported.

She had testified she went to see her daughter in Vietnam and met a friend "Dwi" who asked her to carry two bags on her flight to Penang, to be passed to another friend.

"Her story makes no sense and I don't think her friend 'Dwi' even exists," the English daily quoted the judge, Mohd Amin Firdaus Abdullah, as saying.

The court decisions are the latest in a clampdown by Malaysian authorities on alleged foreign drug traffickers but the mandatory death penalty has mostly been meted out on men.

A Kuala Lumpur court in August charged 10 Iranians, an Uzbek and a local with trafficking methamphetamine.

An Australian nurse and Nigerian man were also charged with trafficking drugs in July, in a case that attracted media attention worldwide.

Since 1960, more than 440 people have been executed in Malaysia, including two Australians sentenced to death in 1986 for heroin trafficking -- the first Westerners to be executed under tough anti-drug laws.-Rappler (September 29, 2012 4:56PM)

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