Japanese politician charged over drugs
Print Edition
A JAPANESE politician has been charged with smuggling 3 kilograms of methamphetamine into China, Japan’s Kyodo News Service reported yesterday.
If convicted, Takuma Sakuragi, a member of the Inazawa municipal assembly in central Aichi Prefecture, could face the death penalty.
He was charged by Guangzhou Procuratorate on Monday.
Sakuragi, 70, was taken into custody at Baiyun International Airport in southern Guangzhou Province on October 31, after security inspectors found the drugs in his luggage.
He was arrested by the Chinese authorities in December.
The report said Sakuragi had planned to take a flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai before heading back to Japan the same day.
According to previous reports, security staff found the drugs hidden in shoes in his luggage. Sakuragi is said to have claimed that the luggage was given to him by a Nigerian business partner.
Under Chinese law, anyone found guilty of making, smuggling, selling or transporting 50 grams of meth or more can be sentenced to death.
Last week, a 50-year-old Japanese drug dealer was executed in China’s northeast province of Liaoning. He had attempted to smuggle several kilograms of meth from Dalian to Japan in 2009, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.
The man, who was not named, had appealed after being sentenced to death by a Dalian court in December 2012.
He saw his family last Thursday before being executed the following morning.
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