899 Malaysians Detained Abroad In Past 10 Years For Drugs

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 (Bernama) -- A total of 889 Malaysian nationals were detained abroad for drug offences for the past 10 years, making them the biggest number of Malaysians being detained compared to other crimes committed abroad. This is followed by credit card falsification with 248 people, others (158), theft (105), immigration (85), commercial crime (84), cheating (65), human trafficking (50), document falsification (44) and murder (27). Foreign Ministry Statistics from the year 1991 to last year also showed that a total of 1,941 Malaysian nationals were detained abroad, according to special officer to the Foreign Minister, Neow Choo Seong. "A total of 1,755 had been convicted while the remaining 186 had been released," he said at a seminar on Public Awareness on Drug Mules (SEDARLAH) at the Kolej Universiti Sains Kesihatan Masterskills, here Thursday. From the statistics, he said 81 Malaysian nationals were jailed for life, 33 were sentenced to death while the rest were jailed for between five and 30 years in prisons abroad. "Out of the 33 people who were sentenced to death, 25 were for drug-related offences while eight were for murder. -- BERNAMA