Fr John Wotherspoon
Senior Member
- Aug 3, 2013
- 108
- 180
I'm sad to report that over the past few weeks, several drug mules from Africa have received heavy sentences in Hong Kong. "After cut" they will be incarcerated for about ten years, less the time they have already been in detention.
Some of them had the best lawyers in Hong Kong, but to no avail. The law here is so strict that judges have almost no freedom to take any special circumstances into account.
The only thing that matters is "how much" of drugs and the corresponding sentence. I've heard that in the US drug mules get a maximum of 5 years, but in Hong Kong its a minimum of 10 years.
That's if you plead guilty. If you fight the case and lose, you get more than 20 years. One piece of good (?) news is that this year only a handful of Tanzanians and Kenyans have been arrested at Hong Kong airport not because security at the airport is less (in fact it has increased) but because they have stopped coming.
But the bad news is that the number of Nigerians and South Africans has increased unlike East Africans they haven't yet got the message that bringing drugs to Hong Kong is a suicide mission. There are now 39 South Africans in Hong Kong prisons together with about 130 from Tanzania and maybe 100 from Nigeria.
In Macau prison which I visited recently there are about 40 Africans, including 12 from Tanzania (10 men and 2 women). No new Tanzanian at Macau prison the past year for the same reason as Hong Kong. Security at Macau airport also has been intensified.
At Macau and Hong Kong airports, there's no more such a thing as "an open line". Please spread the message to save any more Africans and their families from the tragedy of a long prison sentence.
Some of them had the best lawyers in Hong Kong, but to no avail. The law here is so strict that judges have almost no freedom to take any special circumstances into account.
The only thing that matters is "how much" of drugs and the corresponding sentence. I've heard that in the US drug mules get a maximum of 5 years, but in Hong Kong its a minimum of 10 years.
That's if you plead guilty. If you fight the case and lose, you get more than 20 years. One piece of good (?) news is that this year only a handful of Tanzanians and Kenyans have been arrested at Hong Kong airport not because security at the airport is less (in fact it has increased) but because they have stopped coming.
But the bad news is that the number of Nigerians and South Africans has increased unlike East Africans they haven't yet got the message that bringing drugs to Hong Kong is a suicide mission. There are now 39 South Africans in Hong Kong prisons together with about 130 from Tanzania and maybe 100 from Nigeria.
In Macau prison which I visited recently there are about 40 Africans, including 12 from Tanzania (10 men and 2 women). No new Tanzanian at Macau prison the past year for the same reason as Hong Kong. Security at Macau airport also has been intensified.
At Macau and Hong Kong airports, there's no more such a thing as "an open line". Please spread the message to save any more Africans and their families from the tragedy of a long prison sentence.
