Three Malaysians
including a housewife have been sentenced to hang for trying to smuggle heroin
to Australia hidden in more than 200 rubber capsules they swallowed, a defence
lawyer said Tuesday.
The trio were arrested at an airport in the Malaysian city of
Penang in January 2005 while waiting to board a plane to Australia.
A High Court judge convicted them on Monday, rejecting their
contention that they thought the packets contained a herbal medicine and that
they were duped by a drug syndicate, defence lawyer R.S.N. Rayer told AFP.
The three were named as Kwok Weng Fatt, 62, Abdul Rahman Lee
Abdullah, 54, and housewife Nurul Jannah Seng Abdullah, 47.
Following their arrest, the three purged a combined 233
rubber capsules which had been coated with margarine to aid ingestion,
Malaysian press reports said. Nurul Jannah reportedly carried 15 additional
capsules in a carry-on bag.
Muslim-majority Malaysia's strict drug laws include a
mandatory death penalty by hanging for trafficking. Drug-trafficking cases
often take several years to be completed.
Rayer said: "We will be appealing the sentence because
even though the three knew that they were transporting contraband, they did not
realise that it was actually drugs and were told that it was some form of
Chinese herbal medicine."
The trio say they were met in a hotel by two men who gave
them the capsules, air tickets to Australia and offered to pay them to
transport the goods.
Media reports said the fees ranged between 150 and 180
ringgit ($47-$57) per capsule.
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Source : AFP
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