Chandapiwa Baputaki
7 July 2009
Two female Botswana students face up to 10 years in jail in Malaysia after they were arrested and charged with possession of banned drugs. The students have been in remand for the last three weeks.
The two were studying at the African Pacific Institution of Information Technology. The principal public relations officer in the Ministry of Education, Nomsa Zuze said the students were remanded on June 23 with two of their male friends, who are not Batswana. She explained that the students' friends have engaged a lawyer to get them bail but this has not worked because the magistrate did not turn up.
Zuze said the case has been set for hearing on August 10, 2009. Meanwhile the students will remain in police custody. "The government will not be responsible for the action of the students outside the school.
Government has taken the students there to study and if they do anything that gets them in problems, that will be an arrangement between them and their parents of how to get out of those sticky situations," she said.
However, it has been revealed that the sentence for possession of drugs in Malaysia carries a minimum of five years in jail. If tests prove that they students are users, they face another five years in jail.
Meanwhile, it is understood Malaysian drug law imposes a mandatory death sentence for possession of drugs for personal use. Information gathered from the Malaysian government website indicates that the law presumes possession of more than 200 grams of a drug is trafficking.
Hundreds of people in Malaysia, including foreigners, have been executed under the law.
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