The Supreme Court has rejected a Lao drug kingpin's request to appeal his life sentence for smuggling more than a million ya ba pills into Thailand.
In a decision read out at the Criminal Court in Bangkok yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that the life sentence Xaysana Keopimpha received from two lower courts was final.
Prosecutors said that on Sept 30, 2016, Xaysana, 44, and his accomplices conspired to transport 1.2 million methamphetamine pills into Thailand across the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge and through the Nong Khai immigration checkpoint. The drugs were hidden in a false compartment under the roof of their car.
The drugs were seized and some of the accomplices arrested and later indicted.
Mr Xaysana was detained at Suvarnabhumi airport on Jan 19, 2017 after arriving on a flight from Phuket.
On March 20, 2019, the Criminal Court sentenced Xaysana to death for smuggling drugs into the kingdom but commuted it to life imprisonment.
Mr Xaysana took the case to the Appeal Court, which on Dec 19, 2019 upheld the life sentence.
He then asked the Supreme Court to review the case and hand down a final ruling but the court rejected his request, effectively making the life sentence final.
The accused was taken from detention at the Central Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts to hear the Supreme Court's ruling.