The Phnom Penh Municipal Court in Cambodia has sentenced a Nigerian man, Samuel Amechi Okeke, and his Vietnamese wife to 25 years in prison after they were found guilty of smuggling 1.5 kg of heroin from Cambodia to Australia.
The 34-year-old Nigerian and his wife, Ho Thi Nhu Thuy, 26, were arrested in July 2014 after customs officials in Australia reportedly intercepted 10 backpacks lined with heroin that they had mailed from the Dangkao district post office in May 2014.
Following their arrest, they were subsequently charged with drug trafficking before the presiding Judge, Than Leng, DailyMail reports.
Okeke, had been in provisional detention at Phnom Penh’s maximum-security Prey Sar prison since his arrest in 2014 and is also facing trafficking charges over 13 kg of methamphetamine seized from a Cambodian man in Phnom Penh late last month, the biggest drug seizure of the year, as disclosed by Hun Rithy, a deputy bureau chief at the Interior Ministry’s internal security department.
However, according to military police, the drugs were part of a distribution ring being operated by Okeke with four other inmates.
All six suspects (Okeke, his wife and the four other inmates) in the case were charged with trafficking.
Okeke’s wife, Ms. Thuy, during trial in February 2016, had pleaded guilty to mailing the 10 backpacks lined with heroin but said she did so at the request of a friend and was unaware they contained heroin.
On his part, Okeke, denied knowledge of the drugs.
However, the court didn’t take his plea and subsequently sentenced him, firstly, to 25 years in prison and a fine f 50 million riel (about $12,500).
The presiding judge, Leng, ruled that there was an identical sentence for Ms. Thuy as her husband’s.
The convict, while being escorted from the courtroom, said he was disappointed about the ruling.
Okeke was quoted to have said, “How can I accept?”
The deputy bureau chief at the Interior Ministry’s internal security department, Hun Rithy, who led the initial investigation into the case, said he was satisfied with the verdict.
Rithy said, “It is appropriate because they are husband and wife, and they conspired.”
Comments