EIGHT AFRICANS SENTENCED TO DEATH IN CHINA FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

eight Africans were sentenced to death in southern China after being convicted of drug smuggling, state press reported. The five women and three men were convicted of trafficking drugs and were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by a court in Guangzhou city, the Guangzhou Daily reported. Four of those convicted were from Uganda, two were from Benin and two from Zimbabwe, it said.
The convictions came in six separate cases uncovered during the last two years.
The youngest person convicted was 22-year-old Taapatsa Lauraine Itayirufaro from Zimbabwe, it said. The other Zimbabwean sentenced to death was Asaria Mushangwe, 25, woman.
Tugwete Edith, 27, female, also from Zimbabwe, was sentenced to life jail, the official said.
In the biggest bust, a Ugandan woman identified as Jean Ndawula Kirunda, 39, was convicted of trying to smuggle 1.98 kilograms of a heroin mixture into China in December 2007. In May 2008, Habiba Musa, 29, a woman from Uganda, was caught trying to smuggle 1.2 kilograms of cut heroin after ingesting the packaged drug.
The other four were Fagbemi Ismaila Ayinde, 30, from Benin, man; Annet Namisango, 38, from Uganda, woman; Charles Candia, 23, from Uganda, man; and Ismailou Alamou Adechian, 33, from Benin, man.