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Australia's death row drug traffickers facing potential execution by hanging or firing squad

After Amnesty International released its report last week that 1032 prisoners were executed last year - with China as the world's top executioner - how many Australians are on death row in foreign countries?

At least 5 Australians have been under threat of death by firing squad in China, all for drug trafficking.

An Australian man and woman are facing execution by lethal injection in Vietnam and an Australian woman faces the death penalty in Malaysia, where drug smugglers are hanged.

During 2016, Amnesty calculates, 23 countries carried out executions of prisoners.

Amnesty International has refused to publish the actual number of people China executed because it was "clear that the figures it was able to publish on China were significantly lower than the reality, because of the restrictions on access to information".

It says that after China the majority of executions are carried out by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia where there were 40 beheadings.

The reality of Australians being executed overseas hit home when Indonesia carried out the death penalty on Bali 9 ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in 2015.

In chilling scenes, funeral parlour workers in the Javanese port of Cilicap happily showed off the coffins which were to hold the bodies of the men after their death by firing squad.

Footage of the filled coffins in the back of ambulances arriving back at Cilicap after their execution on Nusakambangan Island made world news.

But the sobering loss of 2 young Australian men paying the ultimate price for drug smuggling has not got through to other young people.

Last year Vietnam imposed 63 new death sentences. Of these, at least 54 were imposed for drug-related offences and four involved foreign nationals.

1 of these is an Australian woman, yet to be named, who was allegedly found with 4.8kg of heroin in her luggage in June last year.

The 37-year-old, who is of Vietnamese origin, was detained at Tan Son Nhut Airport in the southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City.

Officials claim they found nearly 5kg of heroin hidden in picture frames in her bags.

The woman allegedly told officers she was paid $33,500 to transport the heroin to Australia.

She has yet to face trial, but Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws and trafficking even small amounts of heroin is punishable by death.

Vietnam applies the death penalty is cases of trafficking of 100 grams of heroin or 300g of other illegal narcotics, replacing firing squads with lethal injection 3 years ago.

If convicted, the woman will join Australian Pham Trun Dung, on Vietnam's death row.

VIETNAM


Execution method: Lethal injection

Death row Australian: Pham Trung Dung, 38

Arrested in May, 2013, Dung was stopped from boarding a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Sydney when customs officials found 3.6kg of heroin in his luggage.

At his 2014 trial, Dung told the court he had been hired by an unidentified man to traffic the heroin in exchange for $40,000.

He had been living in Australia with his partner and their 2 sons and found the lure of the money irresistible.

His job was to transport the drugs back to Australia and deliver them to an acquaintance.

Sentenced to execution, Dung appealed but the Ho Chi Minh City People's court last August confirmed his death sentence.

MALAYSIA


Execution method: Hanging

Death Row Australian: Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 54

In December 2014, Australian grandmother Maria Exposto was flying en route from Shanghai, China to Melbourne via Kuala Lumpur on a Malaysian Airlines flight.

She was in transit when Malaysian customs officer Mohd Noor Nashariq scanned her bag and allegedly found 1.1kg of methamphetamine hidden in a hand-stitched compartment.

Exposto told police she had flown to Shanghai to meet up with a US serviceman following an online romance between the 2, but the man was a scam artist. Australian Maria Exposto has yet to learn her fate in Malaysia where she was caught with 1.1kg of methamphetamine.

She said another man, a stranger, duped her into carrying a backpack which he told her was full of clothes, but which contained the secreted drugs.

Exposto emigrated to Australia from East Timor and has been an Australian citizen since 1985.

Soon after her arrest, lawyers for Exposto said she had voluntarily offered her bags to customs as she attempted to enter Malaysia, having gone through immigration mistakenly.

They were then hopeful of an acquittal, but Exposto has remained in custody.

In 1986, Malaysia hanged Australians Kevin Barlow, 28, and Brian Chambers, 29, at Pudu Prison for trafficking 141.9g of heroin.

THAILAND


Execution method: Lethal injection

Death row Australian: Antonio Bagnato, 28

In February this year a Thai court sentenced Australian Antonio Bagnato to death for the kidnap and murder of a Hells Angels bikie and alleged drug smuggler, Wayne Schneider.

Bagnato, 28, and 4 other men abducted Schneider from his luxury villa in the beachside suburb of Pattaya in December 2015.

Schneider's body was later found buried. His neck was broken and he had facial injuries.

Bagnato, who had fled to Cambodia, was extradited back to Thailand.

Wayne Rodney Schneider's body was found with his neck broken, injuries to the face and buried in a grave.

A Muay Thai fighter, Bagnato was also wanted in Australia in relation to the 2014 murder of Bradley Dillion.

Bagnato was found guilty of murder, deprivation of liberty and disposing of a body.

There is some debate as to whether Bagnato will be executed.

The last person to be sent to their death by lethal injection in Thailand was in 2009.

Bagnato has been transferred to Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi Province, north of Bangkok, the only prison with a death row and an execution chamber.

Up to 25 inmates share each 4m by 7.5m cell in the notoriously squalid prison.

CHINA


Execution method: Firing squad

Death row Australians: Henry Chhin

Shanghai police intercepted 270g of ice concealed in computer equipment which they alleged Chhin tried to send from China to Australia in 2005.

Chhin was sentenced to death and his sentence was suspended for 2 years.

But Shenzen police uncovered a further 700g of meth in cabinets at Chhin's residence, and his fate is currently unclear.

Queensland man Ibrahim Jalloh is reportedly awaiting trial in China on drug charges.

Chinese officials arrested the 2 young men from Queensland at Guangzhou airport in June 2014 in possession of methamphetamine.

Sherrif has received a "suspended" death sentence, but the outcome is uncertain.

Jalloh, who has an intellectual disability, has received a suspended death sentence, which may be commuted to life in prison.

Peter Gardner faces a potential death penalty for allegedly trying to smuggle 30kg of methamphetamine when he visited China with then girlfriend Kalynda Davis in 2014.

Charge: Attempt to smuggle 30kg methamphetamine in suitcases on Sydney flight at Guangzhou airport in November 2014

Dual Australian and New Zealand citizen, Peter Gardner was arrested with his then girlfriend, Sydney promotions representative Kalynda Davis, at Guangzhou Airport in November 2014.

Gardner allegedly tried to board a Sydney flight with Davis and 2 suitcases full of 3kg of ice worth $20 million in bags.

Guangzhou authorities say the suitcases, which were superglued shut, contained the biggest haul of methamphetamine recorded at the airport.

His then girlfriend Kalynda Davis was released without charge.

Gardner said it was 'the biggest mistake of my life'.

Davis' policeman father made a mercy dash to China and his daughter was released without charge and sent home in December.

But Gardner has been held in a Guangzhou prison since.

Gardner told a Guangzhou court early last year that he thought the suitcases contained the performance enhancing sport drugs, peptides, and that this was "the biggest mistake of my life".

He faces another hearing this year, at which he may learn whether he will be convicted and sentenced to death.

Source: news.com.au, April 17, 2017

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