A Vietnamese court on Monday, August 17th reduced a death sentence previously handed to 33 year old Nigerian, Ejiogu Benjamin Ikechukwu, for bringing methamphetamine into Vietnam, to life imprisonment.
He (Ejiogu Benjamin Ikechukwu) was caught in June 2012 with 3.3kg of the banned drug concealed in metal tubes and a laptop charger in his luggage as he flew to Tan Son Nhat in Vietnam.
Ejiogu at the time of his arrest said he only planned to come to Vietnam to buy clothes to resell them in Nigeria and had no idea about the drug in his luggage. According to him, a man asked him to carry the tubes and the charger to Vietnam and that someone would pick them up.
A Vietnam court sentenced him to death in August 2013, but he appealed the verdict. Vietnam Supreme Court then canceled the verdict, ordering a new investigation. Investigators could not track down the people who had used him as a drug mule.
His earlier sentence was with no prejudice as the Vietnamese law convicts anyone smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine in Vietnam faces death penalty.
