Durban - A 28-year-old South African man, who told his family he was in Durban, has been sentenced to death in Kuala Lumpur for smuggling 1.9kg of methamphetamine into Malaysia.
The Department of International Relations and Co-operation said on Friday it had been informed of Deon Cornelius’s sentence by its consular services in Malaysia.
The department said it was rendering consular support to Cornelius and his family in South Africa.
He was arrested on October 4, 2013.
“When a person is sentenced to death by the high court in Malaysia, the case will automatically be referred to the court of appeal,” spokesman, Nelson Kgwete, said.
There it was decided whether the Penang High Court was correct. The accused would again appear in court.
Kgwete said this process usually took between six and 12 months before the appeal court reached a decision.
“While this appeal process is before the court, the South African government cannot intervene in the matter. The South African High Commission in Kuala Lumpur will closely monitor the events over the next few months.”
Kgwete said if the appeal court upheld the death sentence, the South African government would approach the Malaysian government with a request for clemency.
News24 reported that Cornelius had told his wife, Angelique, in September 2013 he was going to Durban to visit family and to look for a job.
Two weeks later, in October, “I got a call to say he had been arrested in Malaysia,” she reportedly told News24.
She was quoted as saying that her husband later told her he’d met a Nigerian man in Durban, who went by the name Tony, who paid for him to fly to Singapore.
There he was asked to transport a laptop bag to Malaysia. Drugs were found in the bag by Malaysia airport customs officers.
Customs Today Report reported that Malaysian Judicial Commissioner, Datuk Nordin Hassan, had ruled the prosecution had succeeded in proving the case beyond reasonable doubt.
He said the accused should have had the awareness to check the laptop bag that was passed to him by Tony.
Customs Today Report said that during mitigation, his lawyer Hussaini Abdul Rashid, argued the accused had a wife and a 5-year-old daughter in Benoni, and pleaded for leniency.
The accused reportedly appeared calm when Datuk Nordin issued his decision.
Patricia Gerber, the director of Locked Up, an organisation that assists the families of South African drug mules, told the Daily News that she had last been in contact with Angelique on Thursday.
“She’s shut down her Facebook page and isn’t answering her phone now. She was very upset by the comments left under the News24 story. People can be very insensitive,” she said.
The Daily News tried to contact Angelique this morning with no success.
Gerber said that news of the execution by hanging had been reported in Malaysian newspapers, confirming the family’s worst fears.
“The worst part is that the department has no information and offers no real help to these families. Another South African, Janice Linden, was executed in that country in 2011. It should not be allowed to happen again.”
Amnesty International said in its global report on death sentences and executions compiled in 2013 that in that year Malaysia had handed down 76 death sentences and carried out two executions.
One was executed for murder, the other for drug trafficking.
At least 76 new death sentences were known to have been imposed there, 47 for drug-related offences.
Of those sentenced to death in Malaysia, 37 were foreign nationals, 10 of them women. There were an estimated 992 people on death row as of end 2013. Four death sentences were commuted.
But, because of a lack of reporting, Amnesty International could not confirm reliable figures for Malaysia.
Daily News