Taiwanese Pair Get Life For Heroin Haul

WAR ON DRUGS

Taiwanese pair get life for heroin haul

BANGKOK: -- Two Taiwanese men were sentenced yesterday to life imprisonment for possessing 8.6 kilogrammes of heroin with intent to sell.

Three other defendants in the case were acquitted for lack of evidence.

The Southern Bangkok Criminal Court initially sentenced Li Yue-shiew, 39, and Ou Chen-fuei, 43, to death but later commuted their terms to life in jail because they confessed.

The court then acquitted Wang Siew-chong and Jia Hui-seng, both 34, and Siew Moei-wang, 29, citing a lack of clear evidence against them.

According to the prosecution, Ou drove a pick-up truck with 1kg of heroin to meet the four other defendants in a hotel room in Bangkok on June 23 last year. Another 7.6kg of heroin was also found in the room.

The five were arrested by Lamphun police who had followed Li and Ou on suspicion the pair had smuggled in heroin from the northern border. Li and Ou confessed, while the other defendants pleaded innocent saying they were just tourists who had been persuaded by the pair to check into the same hotel.

--The Post 2004-04-17