KOTA KINABALU: It was 10 years ago but she remembers it like it was yesterday the nightmare her life turned into when she was caught trafficking drugs into the country.
Jen (not her real name), who hails from Hubei, China, had arrived at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) with a luggage bag of unknown contents.
The now 32-year-old said a friend who worked with in a factory back home had asked her to fly with the baggage to Sabah, adding she was given RM2,000 as an incentive for the task.
Looking back, she blamed herself for jumping at the chance to become an unwitting drug mule, a decision that would cost her her freedom until at least 2034.
“I can only weep when the authorities told me that there were drugs in my bag,” she recalled when met during the Prison Department’s psychoeducation programme at the women’s prison here on Friday (Sept 20).
“The drugs were hidden under the clothes inside, I was at a loss for words,” added Jen.
She rued her actions of blindly trusting the so-called friend who had destroyed her life and caused her family to suffer.
For trafficking 4kg of drugs, Jen was sentenced to a mandatory death penalty under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, which provides for the sentence on conviction.
“My family would keep asking me each time I called home when I was returning to China but I had no answer to give them.
“I was relieved that my appeal was accepted by the Court of Appeal on Apr 23 to set aside the death penalty,” she said, adding she was later notified that her sentence would end in 2034.
Having spent the past decade in a Malaysian prison, Jen said she was now quite fluent in Malay and this has enabled her to converse with local inmates.
“I learned by listening to others speak and used a dictionary to further my understanding.
“I can now read Malay novels,” she said.
