A Nigerian, Ejiogu Benjamin Ikechukwu, who was sentenced to death in August 2013, has been relieved of the death penalty, but instead sentenced to life. Ikechukwu was arrested at the Tan Son Nhat airport in Saigon, after the custom officers caught him with 3.3 kilograms of methamphetamine in tubes and laptop charger in his luggage.
Ikechukwu who had transited in Qatar in his defence claimed that the he had helped someone in Qatar bring the tubes and the luggage. The person in Qatar had said someone in Vietnam would meet him to collect the items, and he had no idea it was illegal drugs.
Ejiogu Benjamin Ikechukwu standing trial for his case in Saigon. Photo courtesy : Dan Tri
He said he was only coming to buy some clothes in will later take back to Nigeria, as other Nigerians always do, he never knew he was being used as a drug mule, Ikechukwu claimed.
In 2013, a court in Ho Chi Minh sentenced him to death, disregarding his claim, but Ikechukwu appealed the judgement.
The People's Supreme Court then cancelled the verdict, and order a new investigation into his case. As investigators could not track down the person who had used Ikechukwu as a drug mule, the court then reduced his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Vietnam is a country that frowns against drug smuggling, and smugglers convicted of more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms faces the death penalty, and also production or sale of 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs/narcotics is also punishable by death.