Filipino maid sentenced to death for drug trafficking < br />

2012-05-29 02:07:52 GMT+7 (ICT)

SHAH ALAM, MALAYSIA (BNO NEWS) -- A Malaysian high court on Monday sentenced a Filipino maid to death by hanging after she was found guilty of trafficking cocaine, state-run media reported. A Malaysian man has also been sentenced to death for an unrelated murder.

The maid, identified only as 45-year-old Eliza Sans Gabrier from the Philippines, was arrested on the morning of August 28, 2009 at the Puduraya Bus Terminal in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. She was found to be in possession of 1.1 kilogram (2.4 pounds) of cocaine.

In his judgement, Judge Datuk Mohd Sofian Abdul Razak said the defense denied the charge but gave no evidence to support this, according to the Bernama state-run news agency. Gabrier did not respond when the judge sentenced her to die by hanging, but she briefly covered her eyes with a white towel.

Also on Monday, Justice Datuk Su Geok Yiam sentenced 23-year-old V. Raja to death by hanging for murdering a man in a Kuala Lumpur suburb during the early morning hours of August 24, 2009. Raja was convicted of stabbing the 45-year-old victim, believed to be a transvestite, after which he fell into a retention pond and died.

It is unknown how many executions are carried out in Malaysia each year, as the government considers this to be classified information. Amnesty International said in a recent report that it was able to confirm that at least one execution was carried out in 2011, but indications are that other people were also executed.

In addition, at least 108 new death sentences were imposed in Malaysia last year. Some two-thirds of the death sentences were imposed for drug-related offences and one third of these involved foreign nationals. Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed last year that 441 people were executed between 1960 and April 2011, when 696 people were on death row.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-05-29

Do the crime and do the time. Even if it's the end of time.

Do the crime and do the time. Even if it's the end of time.

Of course this adage does not apply here in Thailand if you are considered to be "above the law" .