Thai drug arrests: Officials to call for lives to be spared

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Khouth Sophak Chakrya

Cambodia will urge Thai officials not to consider the death penalty if two of its nationals, who were arrested on Sunday for allegedly smuggling drugs across the border into Thailand, are found guilty of charges against them, an official has revealed.

Neth Sary, a Cambodian consular official in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, said the arrested couple were being held in the provincial prison awaiting their trial. “However, [for] this case, we are suggesting [further] investigation and [we are] trying to negotiate with Thailand not to evoke the death penalty on them,” he added.

Ban Beng, 20, and his wife, 27-year-old Huorn Sophal, were arrested by Thai border police on Sunday for allegedly smuggling about 10,000 methamphetamine pills and 100 grams of another drug between the two countries, according to Sary.

The drugs were being concealed in Beng and Sophal’s shoes, the official revealed.

Thailand still hands down the death penalty for some drug offences. The most recent executions, however, were carried out in 2009.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thai-drug-arrests-officials-call-lives-be-spared