[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 29




HONG KONG:

Suspect in Taiwan Valentine's murder jailed in Hong Kong



A Hong Kong man wanted in Taiwan for strangling his pregnant girlfriend in a 
case used by the city to justify controversial changes to its extradition laws 
was jailed Monday, but not for murder.

Chan Tong-kai, 20, confessed to Hong Kong police that he killed Poon Hiu-wing 
and dumped her body on the outskirts of Taipei last year.

Poon, who was 20 and was five months pregnant, was strangled during a 
Valentine's holiday to the island by Chan who fled back to Hong Kong which has 
no extradition agreement with Taiwan.

The killing sparked sympathy for Poon's family and was used by the Hong Kong 
government to advocate changing the financial hub's laws to allow extraditions 
on a case-by-case basis to Taiwan, Macau and mainland China.

But the decision to include the mainland in those proposals sparked huge 
protests and a major backlash within the city's business and legal communities 
who fear it will hammer Hong Kong's international appeal and tangle people up 
in China's opaque courts.

With Hong Kong prosecutors unable to charge Chan for murder, he was instead 
charged with money laundering related to his possession of Poon's phone, camera 
and money he withdrew from her account.

On Monday a judge sentenced him to 29 months in jail.

Judge Anthea Pang said "great frustration and a serious sense of unfairness" 
should not overshadow the fact that the case was a money laundering 
prosecution, not a murder trial.

She said sentencing someone for a crime they are not convicted of would mean 
"short circuiting" the justice system.

Having been in custody since March last year, Chan has already served 13 
months.

The length of the sentence means Chan would likely not be freed until after the 
extradition law change -- now winding its way through the city's legislature -- 
comes into effect.

The government have pointed to the murder as a reason for why the law must be 
swiftly changed.

But opponents fear the city's pro-Beijing establishment is using the killing to 
push through the deeply unpopular extradition move.

They argue Hong Kong should cooperate with Taiwan directly or consider trying 
homicide cases involving Hong Kong permanent residents at home.

Historically Hong Kong has baulked at mainland extraditions because of the 
opacity of China's criminal justice system and its liberal use of the death 
penalty.

But the current administration of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam argues it is time 
to bring some form of extradition parity with the mainland.

The planned changes sparked a huge protest Sunday, the largest Hong Kong has 
seen since mass pro-democracy protests in 2014.

In response to the backlash Lam's administration has excluded some economic 
crimes from the extradition proposals and says political dissidents will not be 
at risk. But they have vowed to press ahead with the law change.

Critics say they have little faith in the administration's assurances at a time 
when the city's leaders have cracked down on dissent, jailed protest leaders 
and banned opponents from standing for election.

(source: france24.com)








MALAYSIA:

Thai national, 19, charged with murdering countryman in Seremban



A 19-year-old Thai man who works at a restaurant here was charged with 
murdering another Thai national on Monday (April 29).

The accused, Alsu Nichi, was charged with murdering 24-year-old Abdul Rosah 
Jaru behind the restaurant in Taman Bukit Emas here at 9.30pm on April 21.

No plea was recorded from the accused.

Nichi allegedly stabbed the victim in the neck with a knife after he was 
punched in the face, following an argument.

Restaurant patrons then caught the suspect and handed him to the cops, who 
arrived minutes later.

He was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, which carries 
the death penalty upon conviction.

Magistrate Mahyum Yusof then fixed May 31 for re-mention, pending the 
post-mortem and chemistry reports.

She also ordered the accused be sent to the Puncak Alam correctional facility, 
since he is aged below 21.

(source: The Star)








PHILIPPINES:

SC affirms guilty verdict vs. suspect in Tacurong car bomb attack



The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) 
convicting the suspect in the car bomb attack in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat 
4 years ago.

In a 9-page resolution dated March 6 penned by Associate Justice Rosmari 
Carandang, the SC’s Third Division said Datu Karim Masdal’s acts constituted 
the complex crime of double murder, warranting the imposition of the maximum 
penalty for murder.

The blast which targeted Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu's vehicle 
convoy also killed Maguindanao provincial board member Datu Russman Sinsuat Sr. 
and civilian Raffy Pareñas.

The Court also affirmed the appellate court’s order for Masdal to pay 
PHP300,000 as civil, moral and exemplary damages for each of the victim.

The tribunal added that following the abolition of the death penalty in the 
country, it has reduced the penalty of death to reclusion perpetual with no 
eligibility for parole.

“In the case at bar, the circumstances surrounding the fateful day of August 
15, 2011, when the explosion at Alunan Highway led to the death of Pareñas and 
BM Sinsuat, show an unbroken chain of facts which establish beyond reasonable 
doubt Masdal’s culpability,” the Court ruled.

Masdal claimed he was innocent of the charges considering that the prosecution 
failed to present evidence on how the bomb was detonated and that without this 
evidence, he should not be convicted of double murder.

Masdal says a certain Montasir merely handed him a cellphone and told him to 
send a text message once the Mangudadatu’s convoy arrives adding that he felt 
obliged to follow the instruction out of fear for his life.

“To begin with, although Masdal claims that Montasir threatened him into 
submission, the former failed to specify the extent of the threat given by the 
latter. He did not mention any serious bodily harm that would have befallen 
him. Worse, he did not even claim that Montasir will kill him, should he refuse 
to obey the latter's alleged orders,” the Court pointed out.

“This shows that Masdal's allegation of fear or duress is untenable. Clearly, 
under the circumstances, Masdal 's alleged fear, arising from the threat of 
Montasir, would not suffice to exempt him from incurring criminal liability,” 
it added.

(source: Philippine News Agency)








PAKISTAN:

Victims of the justice system?



In his inaugural address as chief justice, Honourable Asif Saeed Khosa outlined 
his agenda for improving the workings of our justice system. Given his 
unparalleled jurisprudential contribution to Pakistan’s criminal law, it was 
particularly heartening to learn that he intends to construct “a dam against 
fake witnesses and false testimonies”.

This insight into the maladministration of justice echoes the findings of a new 
report from the Foundation for Fundamental Rights and Reprieve. ‘The Pakistan 
Capital Punishment Study’ reveals the systemic, deep-rooted failures that lead 
to hundreds of people being wrongly sentenced to death each year – including 
the widespread use of unreliable witness testimony in capital trials.

The report reveals that, from 2010-2018, the Supreme Court overturned death 
sentences in a staggering 78 % of cases reviewed. Think about that: according 
to this survey of rulings in Pakistan’s highest court, almost 4 in every 5 
death sentences imposed by lower courts should never have been handed down. The 
Supreme Court either aquitted the accused, commuted the sentence or ordered a 
review. In 70 % of acquittal cases, unreliable witness testimony at the lower 
court levels was cited as a main reason for acquittal.

The defective nature of eye-witness testimony reveals several further systemic 
flaws in the appreciation of evidence by the lower courts. In 44 percent of 
reviewed acquittal cases, independent physical evidence failed to corroborate 
or directly contradicted the ostensibly damning witness testimony. In 47 
percent of all cases resulting in acquittal, there was either absence of proof 
that the witness was physically present at the crime scene at the relevant time 
or there was no probable reason for the witness being present. In a large 
number of cases, the witness was found to have altered their testimony 
throughout the course of the investigation and trial to favour the 
prosecution’s case. Lastly, the Supreme Court also often found that witnesses 
had been deemed credible by the lower despite their having a perceptible 
conflict of interest with the accused or a personal bias towards the case.

The stark reality of such practices is made evident in Mst Sughra Begum v 
Qaiser Pervez. This is one of many cases in which the Supreme Court overturned 
the high court’s verdict and found that the prosecution’s witnesses not only 
had a vested interest in seeing the accused convicted, but that “their 
testimony [was] not corroborated by a single shred of evidence”. The Supreme 
Court held that “being false witnesses, they cannot be safely relied upon 
without strong corroboration.” While Mr Qaiser’s co-accused had been acquitted 
at the trial stage, Mr Qaiser himself served almost 12 years in prison before 
finally being acquitted by the Supreme Court, further exhibiting the lower 
court’s arbitrary approach towards capital convictions.

In the judgements reviewed, the Supreme Court was rarely satisfied with the 
credibility of witnesses presented in the lower courts, especially where the 
post-mortem report failed to corrobate witness’ testimonies. Glaring 
discrepancies cited included a scenario wherein a witness testified that the 
accused shot the victim from far away whereas the post-mortem showed burning 
and other clear signs of shooting from a close range. In Pathan v the State 
(2015), the Supreme Court chided the high court for placing “reliance on 
[witness] testimony without judicial care and caution, which has resulted into 
miscarriage of justice” because the prosecution had “miserably failed to prove 
the presence of the eye-witnesses on the crime spot at the fateful time”.

Despite the Supreme Court’s directions, lower courts continue to impose capital 
punishment based on witness testimony that is later found to be uncorroborated, 
inconsistent, potentially biased or simply, false. Thus, the Supreme Court 
itself is forced to determine the credibility of witness testimonies and 
thereby take on duties of a trial court, contributing to the mounting backlog 
of cases at the highest level of the judicial system. The human consequence is 
that the accused languishes on death row for years before receiving meaningful 
justice.

We believe there are sound and effective strategies that can be employed to 
counter these failures. The FFR/Reprieve report recommends certification and 
training for judges prior to their hearing capital cases. In addition to 
becoming better aquainted with Supreme Court precedents, judges must gain 
greater skills in the forensic examination and piecing together of evidence and 
in determining the impact of unsubstantiated statements and of failures to 
disclose information to the court. All of this would help to ensure that 
capital convictions are only upheld in the strongest cases.

The justice system described in FFR/Reprieve’s report is one in which death 
sentences are routinely handed down by lower courts, based on inadequate 
evidence and unreliable eyewitness testimony, only to be almost as routinely 
overturned by Pakistan’s highest court, several years later. If we are to 
realise Chief Justice Khosa’s vision of a modern, efficient criminal justice 
system, lower courts must learn to recognise that “fake witnesses and false 
testimonies” are never a sufficient basis to impose the ultimate punishment.

(source: Michelle Shahid; The writer is a Bertha Justice Fellow at the 
Foundation for Fundamental Rights in Islamabad----thenews.com.pk)








IRAN----execution

Man Hanged at Mashhad Prison



A man who was sentenced to death for murder charges, executed in one of the 
prisons in Mashhad city on April 22, 2019.

According to Rokna, the execution was announced by Iranian judiciary 
authorities. However, neither the name of the prisoner nor the place of 
execution was not revealed. The prisoner was executed for murder. The crime 
happened around six years ago at a village near Farouj, North Khorasan province 
but the verdict was carried out in Khorasan Razavi province.

Farouj city’s chief prosecutor told the crime had happened during a gang fight 
in which a 30 years old man was killed.

According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, the majority of 
executions in 2017 and 2018 in Iran was for murder charges. At least 188 
prisoners were executed for murder charges in 2018. Only 33% of executions were 
announced by Iranian authorities in 2018.

There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results 
in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and 
intent.

(source: Iran Human Rights)

***************

2 17-year-old boys flogged and secretly executed in abhorrent violation of 
international law



The Iranian authorities have flogged and secretly executed 2 boys under the age 
of 18, Amnesty International has learned, displaying an utter disdain for 
international law and the rights of children.

Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat, 2 cousins, were executed on 25 April in 
Adelabad prison in Shiraz, Fars province, southern Iran. Both were arrested 
aged 15 and convicted on multiple rape charges following an unfair trial.

According to information received by Amnesty International, the teenagers were 
unaware that they had been sentenced to death until shortly before their 
executions and bore lash marks on their bodies, indicating that they had been 
flogged before their deaths. Their families and lawyers were not informed about 
the executions in advance and were shocked to learn of the news.

“The Iranian authorities have once again proved that they are sickeningly 
prepared to put children to death, in flagrant disregard of international law. 
It seems they cruelly kept these 2 boys in the dark about their death sentences 
for 2 years, flogged them in the final moments of their lives and then carried 
out their executions in secret,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North 
Africa Director at Amnesty International.

“The use of the death penalty against people who were under 18 at the time of 
the crime is strictly prohibited under international human rights law and is a 
flagrant assault on children’s rights. It is long overdue for Iranian 
parliamentarians to put an end to this harrowing situation by amending the 
penal code to ban the use of the death penalty against anyone who was under 18 
at the time of the offence.”

Iran remains the top executioner of children in the world. As a state party to 
the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on 
Civil and Political Rights, Iran is legally obliged to treat anyone under the 
age of 18 as a child and ensure that they are never subjected to the death 
penalty or life imprisonment.

Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat had been held in a juvenile correction 
centre in Shiraz since 2017. On 24 April, they were transferred to Adelabad 
prison, apparently without knowing the reason. The same day, their families 
were granted a visit with them, but they were not told that it was in 
preparation for their execution.

The next day, on 25 April, the families suddenly received a call from Iran’s 
Legal Medicine Organization, a state forensic institute, informing them of the 
executions and asking them to collect the bodies.

The legal proceedings leading to the 2 boys’ conviction and sentence were 
unfair and flagrantly violated the principles of juvenile justice. Following 
their arrest, they were held for 2 months in a police detention centre, where 
they said they were beaten. They also had no access to a lawyer during the 
investigation stage.

The practice of subjecting children to police questioning in the absence of a 
guardian or lawyer violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which 
provides that children in conflict with the law must be guaranteed prompt legal 
assistance.

Amnesty International has recorded the execution of 97 individuals in Iran who 
were under the age of 18 at the time of the crime between 1990 and 2018. More 
than 90 others remain at risk of execution.

The fact that Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat’s executions were not made 
public before their cases were made to known to Amnesty International 
reinforces the organization’s concern that the real number of executions of 
juvenile offenders in the country is actually higher than the figure it has 
recorded. Juvenile offenders currently on death row are also at risk of being 
executed in secret if their cases are not brought to the attention of human 
rights organizations for public campaigning and advocacy.

“We have identified a trend in which Iran’s authorities are carrying out 
executions of juvenile offenders in secret and without giving advance notice to 
the families, seemingly in a deliberate attempt to avoid global outrage. This 
makes it all the more important for influential international actors such as 
the EU to increase their diplomatic and public interventions to pressure Iran 
to end the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders,” said Philip 
Luther.

Many have spent prolonged periods on death row – in some cases more than a 
decade. Some have had their executions scheduled and postponed repeatedly, 
adding to their torment. Such conditions of uncertainty causing severe anguish 
and mental distress amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

The use of the death penalty for rape is not permitted under international law, 
which states that its use must be restricted to the most serious crimes 
involving intentional killings.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception 
regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or 
the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The death penalty is a 
violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading 
punishment.

(source: Amnesty International)








SAUDI ARABIA:

Man executed in Saudi Arabia admitted to gay sex in ‘invented’ confession



One of men executed in Saudi Arabia last week confessed to having gay sex with 
4 other men who also faced capital punishment, according to court reports 
quoted by CNN.

A confession presented at the 2016 trial of the man, who was not identified in 
news reports, showed he admitted to having sexual relations with the four other 
men, as well as organising anti-government violence. His lawyer said the 
interrogator “invented” the confession.

The court documents quoted in CNN, which related to the trials of 25 men who 
were executed on April 23, read in relation to this case: “He said that he did 
all this because he belonged to the Shia sect and because he was against the 
Sunni sect, and because of his hate for the state and its men and its security 
forces.” The man denied the charges.

Homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, which adopts 
a strict interpretation of Sharia law.

Condemnation of homosexual acts is taught to pupils at school, as textbooks 
reviewed by the monitoring group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in November were 
shown to promote violence against those who engage in gay sex, as well as 
women, Jews, Christians and Shia Muslims.

Mass execution in Saudi Arabia was one the largest in country’s history

The man was one of 14 people—all Shia men—accused of belonging to a terror 
cell. These 14 men were named in the list of the 37 people, including 3 who 
were minors at the time of arrest, accused of various terror-related charges 
who faced capital punishment in last week’s mass execution. 1 of those executed 
was then crucified.

One of the men, identified as Hussein Mohammed al-Musallam by CNN, claimed at 
the trial the confessions were fabricated and that he was tortured. He said he 
had suffered various injuries including a broken nose, collarbone, and leg and 
asked the court to summon medical reports from the prison hospital as 
supporting evidence.

The father of Mujtaba al-Sweikat, who was 17 when he was arrested after 
participating in a demonstration and was among those executed last week, also 
claimed his son had been tortured while acting as his attorney at the trial.

“He was subjected to psychological and physical abuse which drained his 
strength,” Nader al-Sweikat said in a statement carried by the judgement sheet 
quoted in CNN, adding that his son was forced to sign a confession dictated by 
an interrogator so the torture would stop.

The mass execution, one of the largest in Saudi Arabia’s history, drew 
international condemnation from various countries including the UK and from the 
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

(source: pinknews.co.uk)

*****************

Saudi Arabia beheading so many prisoners it will need more executioners as 
Kingdom is tipped to set new slaughter record----The news comes after it 
butchered 37 people in 1 bloody day last week meaning it is now on target to 
kill a record number of its citizens in 2019



The ruthless Saudi government is beheading so many people it needs to recruit a 
deadly new squad of sword-wielding executioners.

The news comes after it slaughtered 37 people in one bloody day last week 
meaning it is now tipped to kill a record number of its citizens in 2019.

The Sharia law-run state has advertised for eight new executioners to handle 
the projected rise in brutal public beheadings.

No special qualifications are needed for the jobs whose main role is “executing 
a judgement of death” but also involves performing amputations on those 
convicted of lesser offences.

The macabre job advert was reportedly posted on the country's civil service 
jobs portal.

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s highest rates of execution: suspects 
convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking face 
the death penalty.

It has carried out nearly 600 executions since the start of 2014, more than 1/3 
of them in drug cases.

More than 140 people were put to death in the kingdom last year, where convicts 
are usually beheaded using a huge curved sword.

Public beheadings will typically take place around 9am when the convicted 
person is walked into a square and made to kneel in front of the executioner.

The executioner uses a sword known as a sulthan to remove the condemned 
person's head from his or her body at the neck.

Statisticians have now projected more than 170 will be put to the sword this 
year - a record for modern times.

Rights groups began documenting execution numbers in the early 2000s and the 
figures have been trending upwards.

Last Tuesday one prisoner was crucified and another had his head impaled on a 
spike during dozens of sickening executions held over one day in the ruthless 
kingdom.

Those killed during the beheading bloodbath had all been convicted of 
"terrorism offences" in the hardline desert country.

The killings were carried out in Riyadh, the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and 
Medina, central Qassim province and Eastern Province, home to the country's 
Shiite minority.

Saudi authorities later revealed one person was crucified after his execution - 
a punishment reserved for what are deemed very serious offences.

It also publicly placed the executed body and severed head of a convicted Sunni 
extremist on a spike as a warning to others.

SHAM TRIALS

Law-makers said the men were charged with "adopting terrorist extremist 
ideology, forming terrorist cells" and harming the "peace and security of 
society".

One of the men executed was just 16 at the time of his arrest, according to 
Amnesty International.

Those executed had been involved in attacking a base killing a number of 
security officers, the Saudi Press Agency statement said.

Amnesty International said they were convicted "after sham trials" that relied 
on confessions extracted through torture.

It marked the largest number of executions in a single day in Saudi Arabia 
since January 2, 2016, when the kingdom executed 47 people for 
terrorism-related crimes.

Among those slaughtered was Abdulkarim al-Hawaj, 21, just a schoolboy when he 
was detained and accused of being a "terrorist" for sending texts online about 
an anti-government demonstration.

The Interior Ministry's statement said those executed had adopted extremist 
ideologies and formed terrorist cells with the aim of spreading chaos and 
provoking sectarian strife.

It said the individuals had been found guilty according to the law and ordered 
executed by the Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh, which handles terrorism 
trials, and the country's high court.

Amnesty International said 11 of the men were convicted of spying for Iran and 
sentenced to death after a "grossly unfair trial".

At least 14 others executed were convicted of violent offences related to their 
participation in anti-government demonstrations in Shiite-populated areas of 
Saudi Arabia between 2011 and 2012.

The Interior Ministry said the body of one of the executed men Khaled bin Abdel 
Karim al-Tuwaijri was publicly pinned to a pole.

The statement did not say in which city of Saudi Arabia the public display took 
place.

He appears to have been convicted as a Sunni militant, though the government 
did not give a detailed explanation of the charges against each individual 
executed.

The killings brings the number of people executed since the start of the year 
to around 100, according to official announcements.

Last year, the kingdom executed 149 people, most of them drug smugglers 
convicted of non-violent crimes, according to Amnesty's most recent figures.

(source: thesun.co.uk)








NIGERIA:

Of Nigerians, Drugs And Death Penalty



For the past one month, some Nigerians living in Saudi Arabia have been in the 
news for the wrong reasons.

On April 1, a Nigerian woman, Kudirat Adesola Afolabi was executed by the Saudi 
authorities for drug trafficking, even as another set of 23 Nigerians are 
awaiting the hangman in the Kingdom for the same offence. In the midst of this, 
another Nigerian, Wahid Sobade is facing the prospect of death after reportedly 
being nabbed with 1,138g of cocaine powder in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia port city on 
the Red Sea.

Afolabi’s execution brings the total number of Nigerians killed in Saudi Arabia 
for drug smuggling in the past few years to 9. This is aside 11 Nigerians who 
are currently serving various jail terms for drug trafficking in the Kingdom.

There is a litany of several other convictions around the world involving 
Nigerians on drug trafficking. In India for instance, Nigerians have reportedly 
topped the list of foreigners arrested for drug trafficking since 2012. Out of 
the foreign nationals arrested for drug smuggling between 2012 and 2017, 13 
were Nigerians with 1 from Ghana.

A 2012 report by the International Narcotics Central Board (INCB) also rated 
Nigeria highest among West African countries that transact in illicit drugs. 
The report indicates that close to 50 percent of Africa’s drug couriers 
arrested in Europe in 2011 were Nigerians.

In November 2017, the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) alerted 
Nigeria that about 600 Nigerians were on the death row across Asian countries, 
with Malaysia. Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore topping the drug routes. 
Indonesia is particularly an exceptional destination as many Nigerians have 
been caught, tried and executed there in the recent past. In one particular 
sensational death sentence that captured the attention of the world in April 
2015, 4 Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were executed along with other 
nationals by Indonesian authorities.

These convictions across the world involving Nigerians are mind-boggling.

It is sad and regrettable that in spite of public knowledge that drug 
trafficking carries the mandatory maximum sentence in countries like Saudi 
Arabia, Indonesia and Malaysia, some Nigerians still engage in the criminal 
act.

These actions by few Nigerians bring monumental shame and disrepute to innocent 
Nigerians living in the diaspora and also inflict grave damage on Nigeria’s 
already sullied image in the world.

It is on this note that we call on Nigerians in the diaspora to stay out of 
trouble by living within the laws of the country they reside or do business. 
Nigerians should know that drug trafficking is an immoral act and criminal 
offence that carries various sentences across the world, and therefore should 
be avoided.

More worrisome is the lack of foresight often displayed by Nigerian authorities 
in dealing with diplomatic matters. Nigeria had often greeted several 
convictions involving Nigerians abroad with just mere shrug, showing no 
reasonable interest in the plight of its citizens who had conflict with the law 
in foreign land.

For instance, there are media reports that Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs had been alerted on the impending fate of 23 Nigerians on the death row 
in Saudi Arabia, but did nothing about the privileged information. The late 
response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the alert by Nigeria’s 
Consul-General, Ambassador M.S. Yunusa is believed to have contributed to the 
execution of Kudirat Afolabi on April 1.

Again, the media reports that those awaiting death sentence in Saudi Arabia on 
charges of drug trafficking are innocent and that they are victims of 
complicity between members of a syndicate working in cahoot with greedy airline 
officials, who use the particulars of innocent passengers and baggage tags to 
smuggle drugs into Saudi Arabia, have raised questions on the competence and 
efficiency of our security agencies, especially the National Drugs Law 
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in the nation’s airports.

Could it be that the NDLEA and its sister agencies have been compromised by 
drug barons or is it that drug detection facilities at the nation’s airports 
are obsolete? Why then is it so easy to smuggle drugs out of Nigeria? While we 
appeal to the Federal Government to be more proactive in getting Nigerians out 
of trouble in foreign land, we also charge the government to investigate the 
alleged conspiracy that led to the conviction of the 23 Nigerians in Saudi 
Arabia, with a view to bringing the culprits to book.

(source: thetidenewsonline.com)