23536
Bluelight Crew
BEIJING -- China, the world's most prolific executioner, put a Filipino drug trafficker to death Thursday despite a clemency appeal from the Philippine president.
The 35-year-old man has not been identified in either country. He was arrested in 2008 at Guilin International Airport while trying to smuggle 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) of heroin from Malaysia. Smuggling more than 1.76 ounces (50 grams) of heroin or other drugs is punishable by death in China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing that the case was handled in accordance with the law and that the countries had been in contact over it.
China refuses to say how many prisoners it puts to death each year, though Amnesty International estimates it is in the thousands, far above the number executed anywhere else in the world. The San Francisco-based human rights group Dui Hua Foundation estimated China executed 5,000 people in 2009.
In March, China executed three Filipino workers also convicted of smuggling heroin despite last-minute appeals and political concessions by Philippine leaders. The Philippine government said it was able to prove that a drug syndicate had taken advantage of the Filipinos.
The head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Jose Gutierrez Jr., said earlier that authorities were hunting for the recruiter of the executed drug mule, who is suspected to be a member of an African drug trafficking syndicate. He said the man convicted in China had previously engaged in drug trafficking and was paid $4,000 to $6,000 for every smuggling operation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/china-filipino-drug-trafficker-executed_n_1136046.html
The 35-year-old man has not been identified in either country. He was arrested in 2008 at Guilin International Airport while trying to smuggle 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) of heroin from Malaysia. Smuggling more than 1.76 ounces (50 grams) of heroin or other drugs is punishable by death in China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing that the case was handled in accordance with the law and that the countries had been in contact over it.
China refuses to say how many prisoners it puts to death each year, though Amnesty International estimates it is in the thousands, far above the number executed anywhere else in the world. The San Francisco-based human rights group Dui Hua Foundation estimated China executed 5,000 people in 2009.
In March, China executed three Filipino workers also convicted of smuggling heroin despite last-minute appeals and political concessions by Philippine leaders. The Philippine government said it was able to prove that a drug syndicate had taken advantage of the Filipinos.
The head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Jose Gutierrez Jr., said earlier that authorities were hunting for the recruiter of the executed drug mule, who is suspected to be a member of an African drug trafficking syndicate. He said the man convicted in China had previously engaged in drug trafficking and was paid $4,000 to $6,000 for every smuggling operation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/china-filipino-drug-trafficker-executed_n_1136046.html
