Oct. 5
MALAYSIA:
SA drug mule to plead for royal pardon from Malaysian king
A South African man on death row for drug smuggling in Malaysia may ask the
king for a presidential pardon.
This will be the case should the final appeal of Deon Cornelius fail after he
was bust with about 2kg of meth.
Deon Cornelius is facing a death penalty for smuggling 1.9kg of methamphetamine
into Malaysia in October 2013.
He lost his appeal to have his sentence reversed at the appeals court in that
country last week, after being convicted in January.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation, spokesperson, Nelson
Kgwete said: "In cases where the final appeal to the Federal Court is
unsuccessful, the only option left is for the prisoner to submit a request for
pardon to the King of Malaysia. That is apart from efforts by the South African
government to have the sentence handed down to Mr Cornelius commuted."
Kgwete said the South African High Commissioner in Malaysia had been in contact
with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kuala Lumpur and conveyed SA's stance
on the death sentence.
Meanwhile, his uncle, Gert Cornelius said: "We can't go to Malaysia without
visitation, so we are waiting for them to tell us when we can do this."
It has been reported that Cornelious phoned his family and informed them he had
met a Nigerian man in Durban who paid for his trip to Malaysia.
The man asked him to transport a laptop bag to Malaysia and later drugs were
discovered by officials at the airport.
"There are 237 arrests of our citizens abroad in the past year. Not one
investigation has been done or arrests of recruiters or drug lords involved in
their cases.
"What have SAPS officers in our South African embassies abroad done with this
information. Our government is to blame for creating a safe heaven for drug
lords and recruiters,??? the director of Locked Up, Patricia Gerber said.
Scores of South Africans were nabbed last year, she said.
"We are opposed to the death penalty, it is discriminatory and is used
disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic
and religious communities," she said.
Another South African, Janice Linden, was executed in China in 2011 after being
convicted of smuggling 3kg methamphetamine in 2008.
(source: The New Age)
BANGLADESH:
4 sentenced to death for murdering Narayanganj man in 2012
A Narayanganj court has sentenced 4 to death for murdering one Ujjal Mia 3
years ago at the district's Bandar Upazila.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Miazi Alam delivered the verdict on
Monday morning where he acquitted 6 others as charges against them were not
proved.
Additional Public Prosecutor Abdur Rahim said each convict was fined Tk 20,000
in addition to the death penalty. 1 of them was also sentenced to 3 years in
jail.
The convicts are Abul Kashem, 50, his son 'Sujon', 24, 'Kalu', 48, and his son
'Azman', 26. All of them are of the Upazila's Sonakanda.
Of them, only Sujan was present in court at the time of sentencing. The others
are on the run.
Prosecutor Abdur Rahim told reporters that the accused beat up Ujjal Mia and
stabbed him to death at Sonakanda's Bara Masjid on Jun 16, 2012.
Ujjal's father Lutfar Rahman filed the murder case at Bandar Police Station
accusing 10 people including Sujon. Police submitted the chargesheet naming
those 10 after investigation.
The verdict came after the court heard the depositions of 14 witnesses.
Ujjal's mother Bakul Begum was, however, unhappy with the verdict. "6 accused
were acquitted. They were involved in the murder,' she told reporters.
(source: bdnews24.com)
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