DEATH FOR 2 S'POREAN DRUG TRAFFICKERS

YANGON -- Two Singaporeans have been sentenced to death for
trafficking in heroin, a Myanmar-language weekly journal said yesterday.

Ng Chong Beng, 31, and Soh Ban Chuan, 26, were arrested at Yangon
International Airport on Oct 28 last year as they were about to board
a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok.

Officials said 5 kg of heroin were concealed on Ng's
body.

The two men were tried in Yangon on March 23 and given the death
sentence upon conviction for violating the Narcotic and Psychotropic
Substances law, the Hmugin reported.

The court also sentenced them to 50 years' jail each for possession of
narcotic drugs for trafficking. Although drug-trafficking is
punishable by death in Myanmar, the sentence is commuted to life
imprisonment in most cases.

The two men told the authorities that they had been paid by a third
Singaporean man who had accompanied them to Yangon, whom they
identified as Tay Swege Bang.

They said the drugs had been delivered to them at a Yangon hotel by
associates of Tay, who left Yangon five days before them and was
supposed to meet them in Bangkok.

Less than three weeks after their arrest, three other Singaporean men
were arrested with nearly 6 kg of heroin at Yangon airport as they
prepared to depart on a flight for Kuala Lumpur.