Two women sentenced to death for drugs in Malaysia


Agence France-Presse


KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian courts has sentenced two women, a Filipino and Indonesian, to death in separate cases of drug trafficking, reports said Saturday.
Ani Anggraeni, an Indonesian working in the northern state of Penang as a domestic helper, was convicted Friday of trafficking nearly four 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 high court in Shah Alam, just outside Kuala Lumpur, also handed the death sentence to Marivelle Gonzales for trafficking a kilo of drugs, mostly heroin, into the country two years ago, the Bernama news agency reported.
The 31-year-old Filipino said a man had offered her $1,000, a work permit and $250 in expenses to bring in a bag containing the drugs.
Both their lawyers could not be reached for comment.
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.
© 1994-2012 Agence France-Presse

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more