BEIJING - A court in southwestern China have indicted 5 Indian on drug smuggling charges.
The quantum of punishment is yet to be announced but the five, arrested last year, could face years in a Chinese prison, ranging from a minimum of seven years to 15 years or more.
Two separate trials were held on Wednesday at the Kunming People’s Intermediate court in the southwestern China’s Yunnan province.No Indian official from either the Embassy in Beijing or the Guangzhou consulate – under whose jurisdiction Kunming falls – was present in the court.
Diplomats said the court is yet to notify them about the proceedings.
The five Indians, all from Kolkata, were arrested in two separate cases in a span of two weeks from the international airport in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.
They were identified as Feroz Khan (31), Sheikh Ismail (24), Maqsud Alam (24), Sheikh Ahmed Ali (46) and Akrar Khan (33).
They were flying in from Kolkata and were said to be carrying more than 24 kg of hashish hidden in their luggage.
Two of them were arrested on August 24, 2016, and rest on September 6 after they disembarked from a flight from Kolkata.
They were charged under article 347 of China’s Criminal Law, which deals with offences related to drug smuggling.
The hashish was hidden in several packets of a popular Indian snack and scores of new laptop bags in their luggage.
“It is a very serious offence. According to the law, any deals related to the sales of marijuana over 1 kg could attract a punishment of a jail term of 15 years,” Shanghai-based lawyer Wang Chune had told HT earlier.
Four Indians arrested by the police in Nanning in south China with drugs in 2008, for example, are serving life sentences, which could go on for decades.