|
Thailand
executes Myanmar man for smuggling heroin
11:04 p.m. Jan 04, 2000 Eastern BANGKOK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Thailand executed a 60-year-old Myanmar man for attempting to smuggle 11.2 kg (24.7 pounds) of heroin out of the country, prison officials said. Hla Win, the second Myanmar national executed in Thailand in less than two months, was shot to death by machinegun at Bangkok's Bang Khwang maximum security prison on Tuesday. He was convicted of trying to smuggle the heroin in 1993. Prison officials said nine people, including five foreigners, are on death row in Thailand, all for heroin trafficking. The foreigners are two Israelis, and one person each from Hong Kong, Nigeria and Taiwan. Buddhist Thailand resumed executions in 1996 after a nine-year break. Prisoners are tied to a cross-shaped wooden frame, blindfolded, then shot with multiple rounds from a machinegun. Human rights groups have expressed concern at the rising rate of Thai executions. Last year, 17 inmates were put to death at Bang Khwang, the only prison in the country where executions are carried out. Executions of foreigners are rare. The Myanmar national executed in November, Htaho Pauy, was convicted of a multiple axe murder in 1996. Thailand commuted the terms of dozens of death row inmates to life imprisonment as part of a royal amnesty last month. The amnesty did not cover those convicted of heroin trafficking. Israel has warned Bangkok that bilateral relations could suffer if it executes Yosef Ohana and Avraham Huri, two Israelis sentenced in 1997 for trying to smuggle 2.8 kg (6.2 lbs) of heroin out of Thailand. A diplomat at the Israeli embassy said appeals were lodged for the commuting of the sentences last month. ``We are still waiting for a decision,'' he said. |