By TCN News,
Chennai: An old woman from Tamil Nadu has been sentenced to death by a Malaysian High Court in a case of drug trafficking. Fazila Bee Abdul Kareem (62) of Chennai is the unfortunate womann, and her relatives have reportedly approached the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and the Chennai City Police Commissioner requesting to take measures to help her.
Fazila was arrested reportedly as 2925 g of ‘ketamine’ was found in her luggage when she arrived in Malaysia on February 13, 2009. The High Court gave the verdict in the end of last month, according to reports.
The complaint given by the relatives of Fazila reportedly say this version of the story: Fazila, a widow, has four daughters and had worked as domestic maid in Gulf countries to earn a living. She returned back home after marrying away all the daughters, but again had to try for a job due to poverty. A travel agent in Chennai-Triplicane assured her of the job of domestic help in Malaysia where she would be paid Rs 10,000. She sold many of her belongings and gave Rs 35,000 to the agent to arrange everything. The agent handed her a suitcase from the Chennai Airport and asked her to carry it to Malaysia where a person would come to take it. Fazila did not know what was in the suitcase, until she was arrested in Malaysian airport for carrying ‘ketamine’. The complaint adds that the agent had broken his promise to get Fazila released from jail in two months and to give Rs 4 lakhs as compensation.
In her defence in the court, Fazila reportedly testified that she had come to Malaysia looking for a job. She also said that the bag containing ‘ketamine’ was given to her by a person from India who asked her to check in the bag and the person was to join her in Malaysia.
However, the judge noted that Fazila had come to Malaysia on a tourist visa, and not on work permit. The judge also reportedly said that Fazila looked older than what she claimed and that it was unlikely for someone to want to employ her as domestic help.