By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A 37-year-old Russian woman has been sentenced to death in China for drug trafficking, the Russian embassy in Beijing said.
However, the sentence will be delayed for two years.
Marina Lopatina, a resident of Khabarovsk, was found guilty of trying to smuggle two kg heroin from China’s special administrative region of Macao to the mainland.
A court in China’s Zhuhai city announced the sentence Nov 23, the embassy said Saturday.
This brings the number of Russian citizens on death row for drug-trafficking in China to seven.
Under Chinese law, an attempt to smuggle 50 grams or more of drugs is punishable with the death penalty.
However, death sentences for drug-trafficking are often commuted to life imprisonment if the convicts show full remorse for their actions.