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SINGAPORE – Two Singaporeans sentenced to death in China for drug trafficking received consular assistance from Singapore’s consulate general in Guangzhou, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Friday (December 25).
Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said the consulate-general provided regular assistance to Siti Aslina Junaidi and Mohd Yusri Mohd Yussof, even visiting them regularly until the Covid-19 outbreak struck this year.
The consulate general also ensured the couple had access to medical care and legal assistance, and has been in contact with their families to provide consular support as recently as this week.
Aslina, now 35, and Mohd Yusri, 44, were initially arrested in October 2015 in Shenzhen for allegedly smuggling 11 kg of methamphetamine into 28 women’s bags inside their suitcases, CNN reported Friday.
They were found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to death in July this year.
Mohd Yusri’s sentence has been suspended for two years, so he can receive a lighter sentence, life in prison.
As for Aslina, she is considered to have played a more active role in the crime, CNN said, and if her final appeal is unsuccessful, she faces execution.
Singaporean human rights lawyer M. Ravi, who has been advising on the case, said on Facebook Thursday that finding legal representation in China has been difficult, but a pro bono lawyer has volunteered to help.
Ravi added that he hopes to work closely with the yet-to-be-identified attorney to have Aslina’s case reviewed by the China Court of Appeals.
A court had heard that Aslina met a man, one Chibuzor Onwuka, while looking for work online in late 2014. The man offered her between $ 2,000 and $ 3,000 in commissions per trip to move merchandise, often bags, lingerie, and toner cartridges, between China and Cambodia. twice a month.
Aslina would then pick up goods in Guangzhou and fly with them to Phnom Penh.
She referred Mohd Yusri to the plan in July 2015, but the two were later caught after they had gone on two of those trips together.
Both Aslina and Mohd Yusri reportedly claimed that they had no knowledge of the drugs within the products when they were arrested by Chinese authorities.
It is not known where the Chibuzor Onwuka man is, but he is being “treated separately” according to court documents.
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