A Swedish woman was sentenced to life imprisonment for drug smuggling this week by a criminal court in Manila, the Philippines. The woman, who is in her mid thirties, was arrested September 2000 on Manila’s international airport.
Police claims she carried around 2.5 kilos of methamphetamines, or ‘shabu’ as the drug is called in the Philippines. A catch that leads to at least 30 years in prison in the Philippines.
A spokesperson for Sweden’s ministry for foreign affairs says to Scandasia that the woman may appeal the sentence. She was sent to Pasay City jail when arrested and has been held there since, waiting for the trial which took four years to prepare.
The woman was born in the Philippines and became a Swedish citizen several years ago. She resided in the Göteborg area when she was arrested.
Two years ago did her former Swedish husband make an emotional plea for the woman to Swedish authorities. The case has however not been adopted by any Swedish pressure group.
Two other Swedish female prisoners, one in the US sentenced in a murder case and another transferred from Thailand to Sweden to serve the remainder of a long drug smuggling sentence, have repeatedly had their cases appealed by well connected supporters. That eventually rendered the latter a substantially shortened sentence.
