Court upholds life term for Lao drug lord

Court upholds life term for Lao drug lord

Xaysana: Jailed since 2017
Xaysana: Jailed since 2017

The Appeal Court has upheld a sentence of life imprisonment for Lao drug kingpin Xaysana Keopimpha for smuggling 1.2 million speed pills into the country in 2016.

In its ruling, read at the Criminal Court yesterday, the Appeal Court found Xaysana, 44, had arranged both for the drugs to be smuggled from Laos and for a vehicle with a false roof compartment to conceal them.

Although this happened outside the country, the intent was to commit the crime in Thailand, so he must serve his term here, the court ruled.

The court dismissed Xaysana's appeal that Thai authorities had misunderstood him, possibly due to a mis-translation from the Lao language.

In March last year the Criminal Court sentenced Xaysana to death, commuted to life imprisonment, for smuggling 1.2 million methamphetamine pills through Nong Khai on the border with Laos. The drugs were seized in September 2016 and smugglers in his network arrested the following month. The meth pills were destined for Malaysia.

Xaysana was arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport on Jan 19, 2017 after arriving on a flight from Phuket. He has since been detained at the Central Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts.

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