Ipoh man in Afghan jail for carrying drugs

MALAYSIAN Indians going overseas in search of jobs have been urged to be alert of groups promising them high-paying jobs but instead getting them unwittingly involved in drug trafficking, reported Malaysia Nanban.

Deputy Minister in Prime Minister’s Department T. Murugiah said this in Ipoh yesterday after meeting the family of Raymond Francis, who is being detained in the Kabul prison in Afghanistan for drug trafficking.

He said that the police arrested Raymond in November 2006 after finding that he had carried 1500g of drugs into Afghanistan. He was handed a 10-year jail term after he gave a written confession.

Murugiah said that the Foreign Ministry had agreed to send a representative to Afghanistan to investigate this case but due to the current instability of that country and on advice of the Malaysian High Commissioners had deferred the visit until the security situation in Afghanistan improved.

He said about 110 Malaysian Indians were being detained in various prisons in Afghanistan, Pakistan and South African countries on drug trafficking charges and the Government was doing its best to assist them.

> Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a sub-heading, it denotes a separate news item.