VietNamNet Bridge – A Filipino woman was condemned to death yesterday, March 11, for transporting 5kg of narcotics into Vietnam.

 

 

The defendant at the trial.

On March 11, the Hanoi City People's Court convicted defendant Javier Engracia Ebalang, 41, a Filipino citizen, on charges of illegal transportation of narcotics into Vietnam. She was sentenced to death.

On April 27, 2012, at Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport, the police caught Javier in the act of illegally transporting drugs into Vietnam on a flight from Doha to Hanoi.

The authorities detected three yellow plastic packs containing white crystals, weighing more than 5kg, in the bottom of her suitcase. The white substance was then defined as Methamphetamine.

Javier testified that in early April 2012, a friend hired her to go to Bangkok, Thailand, to transport goods to other countries, with $300 per trip.

In Thailand, she met some fellow countrymen who did the same “job.” Javier was assigned to go to Mali to receive suitcases and take them to Hanoi, then to Thailand by land. When the suitcases were to be handed over to the recipient, she will be paid.

On April 20, 2012, Javier arrived at the Mali airport and was picked up to a hotel, where she stayed for 4 days.

After that, a man gave two suitcases and air ticket to her and told her to fly to Vietnam. Javier was arrested right at the Vietnam’s airport.

Javier declared that she only knew the suitcases were containing banned goods but she did not know it was drugs. She insisted that in this case, she was just a victim.

M. Ha