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A SOUTH AFRICAN woman has been executed in China over drug-smuggling charges, despite a plea from Jacob Zuma to spare her life.
Janice Bronwyn Linden, 38, was arrested for attempting to sneak 3kg of methamphetamine into China through the city of Guangzhou in November 2008. In July 2009, she was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death.
Linden, from KwaZulu-Natal, had insisted upon her innocence, saying that the drugs had been planted on her. However, both Guangdong High Court and Beijing’s Supreme Court rejected her appeal.
Two of Linden’s sisters were able to spend an hour with her before her death by lethal injection earlier today.
Human rights groups have condemned the country for imposing the death penalty, claiming that China’s legal system offers no guarantee of a free trial, reports the BBC.
Although China ignored the South African President’s appeal for clemency, Zuma said that Linden’s death would not affect trade relations between the two nations, reports the Mail & Guardian.
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Very harsh sentence! The Chinese need to chill out methinks.
How many people in China die every year because of drugs? I do not know that but I do know that just in Moscow district there were 6000 drug releated deaths in 2010 (just Moscow, not Russia itself).
http://www.narkotiki.ru/expert_6921.html (it’s in Russian but you can translate it with google).
Another question, how many people were executed by drug lords in Mexico rescently?
The U.S executes more people than any other country. The overwhelming majority are MEN; the overwhelming majority are BLACK; the overwhelming majority are YOUNG. ‘Human rights groups’ are only interested when big bad China does it.
Um? You obviously missed Amnesty’s recent, fairly high profile, and very unsuccessful campaign to prevent the execution of Troy Davis:
http://www.amnesty.ie/news/amnesty-ireland-response-execution-troy-davis
Oh, so how many people did china tell you they killed that allows you to make that calculation, Arch?
They don’t tell anyone how many they kill, which would lead you to think it may not be a minuscule amount. And given their totalitarian grip on the country, you would assume its easier for them to just cull people into political /social obedience.. And I’m sure they’d have no qualms executing young black males if they had a burgeoning population of that demographic.. A great bunch of lads, I think not..
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_exe-crime-executions
Where do you get your information, exactly? China executes FAR more people per year than any other country. And that’s even going by the released statistics. There is good reason to believe that they execute many people without letting it slip. Also, the imbalance between the crime and punishment here is far from unusual.
Everything , everyone has its price. God forbid that principles might get in the way of trade.
Thats one less drug dealer (smuggler) in the world
yeah and 1 more murder
Nobody is a fan of drug smugglers but a 10-15 stretch in a Chinese hell hole would be enough to convince an individual not to do it again.
Daniel that is one of the most ignorant statements I have ever heard, you have no way if knowing she was guilty. In the Chinese judicial system Judges are appointed by the Communist party from the Communist party and the Communist party not the court decides the guilt or innocence of the accused.
But the death penalty in the U.S is for the likes of murderers & so on…not drug trafficking. Personally I think the death penalty should only be applied to the likes of child murderers & pedophiles. That poor girl may well have been telling the truth..either way she didn’t deserve death.
I don’t agree with the death penalty, but in relation to drug trafficking, that could be regarded as assisting in mass murder, particularly when talking of hard drugs (heroin etc).
Well as long as trade relations are not damaged everything is grand then.
China will listen when it hits their pockets. All ordinary people like ourselves have to do is don’t purchase anything ‘made in China’. I haven’t in years so it’s not impossible like some people like to believe.
So you believe that the device you used to make your comment has no Chinese components. Crack open almost any modern appliance and look at where the bulk of the components come from.
By taking that stance you should not purchase anything from the US either since they execute far more per head of population than any other country in the world. Come to think of it you should boycott all countries that have the death penalty or any country that goes to war for that matter – given that war is murder by proxy (sanctioned by a state).
People will always need a shiny new iPhone / PC which are made with plastic (which comes from petrochemicals) which is essentially why the west is at war with poorer nations (for their resources that we covet). This head in the sand pseudo activism which is usually a mask for racism or just plain ignorance really bugs me – either you are a real humanitarian and boycott all of these countries or you aren’t. Don’t just pick and choose one and then get on your high horse pointing at the big bad whoever it is this month.
Wow, look at all the assumptions you have made about me and ALL incorrect!!! That kind of plain ill informed ignorance really bugs me!
Well Will, considering the fact that you have managed to miraculously make a post here despite boycotting Chinese goods maybe you can enlighten me as to how you managed to do this. I sincerely doubt you whittled a PC from an old piece of wood you found lying around.
I think we should all mind our own business. If China executes drug traffickers then don’t trafficked drugs in China. I for one don’t have a problem with it.
It is China, not the USA, that executes more people than the rest of the world combined.
Is that Eoin Legal O’Connor?
Never agreed with the death penalty. Can’t bring the innocent back to life.
Don’t agree with capital punishment, never justified imo. Too much room for error. Look at all the Irish people found guilty and then released after mistrials.
And down with corporal punishment too. No party whips, especially in the Dáil. :)
The big sign going through some Chinese and a lot of Middle eastern airports normally gives visitors a shock. However it also makes it very clear to drug smugglers.
The sign says ;
DRUG SMUGGLERS WILL BE SHOT
However there will always be those who choose to break the law
I love the hypocrisy of the anti death penalty brigade. I wonder if they came home from work and found a rapist in the house, what would they go for first; a telephone to call the cops or bread knife to take the law into their own hands and the rapist’s life. Me? I’d slit his throat and p!ss in the hole. You wanna live, don’t try smuggle drugs into China.
How would they know the person was a rapist?
Eamonn. A human reaction to someone injuring or killing a loved one is a world away from how a state should deliver justice.
If the state executes an innocent person, the blood’s on all of our hands. I don’t ever want to be a party to murder, so I’d rather not execute anyone. This is what it boils down for, to me.
Typical zuma to continue trade between China, as far as I’m concerned the SA gov. hardly did anything to help this poor girl. In actual fact she had been forgotten. but then Gaddafi comes into the picture and there is Zuma with his cronies trying to negotiate terms and conditions for the mass murderer. It’s a bloody disgrace.
Agreed, if the ANC had any sense they will send Malema on a “holiday” to China with a little “something” now.
the body exhibition are all Asian thought to be executed often for minor offences, many of them are missing persons, their families don’t know what happened them. I don’t agree with the death penalty in many cases, but some people deserve to die.
I don’t believe the Chinese return the body to the family because they take the organs.
@Shane O’Connor, u would have the backing of a out 30 million S.Africans behind you on this one. :)
@ Shane, good comment regarding malema :-))
have your say