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| Janice Bronwyn Linden |
China has executed a South African woman for drug smuggling, rejecting an appeal by President Jacob Zuma to spare her life, an official says.
Janice Bronwyn Linden, 38, was executed more than three years after her arrest.
Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned China for imposing the death penalty, saying its legal system did not guarantee a fair trial.
South Africa's government said the execution would not affect its close diplomatic relations with China.
Chinese authorities allowed two of Ms Linden's sisters to spend an hour with her before she was executed with a lethal injection, South Africa's privately owned e.News reports, quoting a correspondent in China.
'Not enough done'
Ms Linden was arrested in November 2008 after being found in possession of 3kg of methamphetamine on her arrival at the airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
She maintained her innocence, saying the drugs had been planted in her suitcase.
However, both the Guangdong High Court and the Supreme Court in Beijing rejected her appeal.
A spokesman for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Clayson Monyela, told the BBC that Mr Zuma had intervened in a bid to commute the death sentence to a life sentence.
"All the necessary interventions were done at every possible level, even the highest ones," Mr Monyela said.
The Chinese authorities would hand her ashes to her family, following her cremation, in accordance with an arrangement made between the two states, he said.
A foreign affairs spokesman for South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party, Stevens Mokgalapa, said the government had not done enough to save Ms Linden's life, South Africa's privately owned Times Lives reports.
"A commitment to human rights is a guiding principle of South Africa's international relations," he is quoted as saying.
"There has been little evidence of this commitment in our dealings with China of late."
Amnesty International has repeatedly appealed to China to halt the death penalty.
The human rights group argues that no-one sentenced to death receives a fair trial in China, where thousands are people are executed for drug trafficking every year - more than the rest of the world combined
Linden family lashes out at Chinese govt
The family members of Janice Bronwyn Linden, who was executed in China for alleged drug smuggling, say they are unhappy about the way that country's government handled her case.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Ntando Mthalane says the family does not believe that she was a drug mule. Thirty five-year-old Linden, who comes from KwaZulu- Natal, was executed by lethal injection yesterday. She was arrested in Guangzhou in November 2008 after she was caught with three kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in her luggage. Mthalane says they don't believe Linden was a drug mule.
He says the fact that she pleaded her innocence right till the end is also proof that in itself, "Because if you know that you are guilty, a sure point your conscience does play a role, and make you say sure okay I'm guilty of the crime, I will rather have a life sentence than to die. Sure something I know I did not do. It was not fair," said Mthalane.
Meanwhile, a Grahamstown woman is the latest South African to be arrested for drug smuggling. Twenty-three year old Nolubabalo Nobanda was arrested at Bangkok international airport last night. She is the 12th South African to be arrested on drug trafficking charges in Thailand this year.
The South African drug mule smuggled a kilogram and a half of cocaine braided into her dreadlocks. Alert customs officials noticed white powder in her hair. She's understood to have admitted smuggling the drugs, valued at close to R2 million for a fee of R16 000.
Back home - her family is devastated. Friends and family want government to intervene. A friend, Asanda Gqeke, says she saw her two weeks ago and she said she was going to Brazil. South Africa's Ambassador to Thailand, Douglas Gibson has confirmed the arrest. Gibson will speak to her once she's taken to an awaiting trial prison.
A group called The Locked-Up Campaign has been pushing for stronger government intervention. It says the use of South African drug mules is spiraling out of control. About 600 South Africans have been arrested around the world for alleged drug trafficking since March this year. The risks for carrying illegal substances across most borders are extremely high, with harsh jail terms and possibly even the death penalty.
Source:
SABC, December 13, 2011
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