KUALA LUMPUR: Mala-ysia insisted yesterday that two Iranian women sentenced to death for drug trafficking must face “due process” despite a warning from Tehran that their executions would harm bilateral relations. Shahrzad Mansour, 31, and Neda Mostafaei, 26, were sentenced to death in September for smuggling methamphetamine into Malaysia in December 2010. Defence lawyers are appealing the case. The two Muslim nations both use the death penalty against drug traffickers. More than 200 Iranians are jailed in Malaysia, mostly for drug-related offenses. The two women were arrested on arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Sri Lanka detains media activist
COLOMBO: Immigration authorities raided a meeting of journalists here yesterday and detained an Australian activist on a charge of working without a visa, a local rights group said. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) representative for the Asia-Pacific region, Jacqui Park, was taken into custody by immigration officials, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said. “She was meeting with us at a hotel in Colombo while on holiday,” said FMM spokesman Sunil Jayasekera.
South Korean MPs cross into North
SEOUL: Twenty-one South Korean lawmakers crossed the fortified border into North Korea yesterday to visit a jointly run industrial park that recently re-opened after military tensions caused a five-month closure. They will visit four of the 100-plus South Korean companies with factories in Kaesong, which lies 10km inside North Korea and was established in 2004 as a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. The lawmakers were joined by officials from the South’s Unification Ministry.
Agencies
