Precious Chineme Nwoko,
a Nigerian drug convict
in Cambodia is possibly praying for divine intervention in order to avert jail or
hanging.
Nwoko, who
also goes by the name Precious Max and linked with
several Australian women was arrested for being his mules, was sentenced to 27
years imprisonment in 2014.
But, appeals court dashed his hope Tuesday insisting that the prison
term was appropriate and in accordance with Cambodia law.
Sydney Morning Herald is quoted as the court
also upheld the prison terms slammed on a Frenchwoman, and Australian. The trio was all convicted for trying to
smuggle heroin to Australia.
Judge Pol Sam Ouen said the sentences
given by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in May 2014 to then-19-year-old
Frenchwoman Charlene Savarino, 41-year-old Ann Yoshe Taylor of Australia and
23-year-old Precious Nwoko of Nigeria were correct.
The lower court had sentenced Savarino to 25 years in prison,
Taylor to 23 years and Nwoko to 27 years.
Savarino and Taylor were arrested in September 2013 at Phnom
Penh International Airport after police found 2.2 kilograms (4.8 pounds) of
heroin in Taylor’s luggage as they prepared to fly together to Australia.
Nwoko, Savarino’s boyfriend, was believed to have masterminded
the smuggling and asked Savarino to make the arrangements.
Cambodia is not a major producer of illegal drugs but has
increasingly become a smuggling transit route.
Khieu Vann, the lawyer for Taylor, told reporters that the
appeals court’s decision was an injustice and that he would consult with his
client to see if she wished to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Asked today by journalists why he used dating scams to turn women
into drug mules, Nwoko became enraged, according to a report by Australia’s
Sydney Morning Herald
“Are you stupid? Get out of here. You think you can come here
and ask questions while I am jail,” he shouted at Luke McMahon, a Melbourne
writer who has revealed Taylor’s plight in an exclusive story for Fairfax
Media.
Nwoko, who is known as Precious Max, had posed as a successful
South African businessman in Phnom Penh when he befriended Taylor on the
internet. She became romantically involved with him after he had paid for her
airfare to Cambodia.
On September 18, 2013, Nwoko asked Taylor, who was due to fly
back to Australia, to take a backpack full of samples for an arts and crafts
business in which he claimed to have an involvement.
She hadn’t made it to the check-in counter when police swooped
and found about two kilograms of heroin in the backpack.Nwoko was arrested soon
after.
Australian police are investigating a growing number of internet
scams targeting Australians in south-east Asian countries, including Cambodia,
where Nwoko is believed to be still operating scams, from his jail cell,
targeting Australian women.
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