GERMAN WOMAN HAS DRUG-TRAFFICKING CHARGES REDUCED

SINGAPORE (AP): A German woman accused of trafficking drugs in Singapore no
longer faces the death sentence after charges against her were reduced in
pretrial court proceedings Thursday.

The case of Julia Suzanne Bohl, 23, had brought this island nation's policy
of hanging convicted drug dealers into the international spotlight.

Accused of belonging to a ring that supplied drugs to bars and nightclubs
in Singapore, Bohl was initially charged with trafficking 687 grams (24.23
ounces) of marijuana, an amount for which the death sentence is mandatory.
If convicted on that charge, she would have become only the second
Westerner here to face execution for a drug- related crime.

But a court revised the charges against her and three alleged Singaporean
accomplices on Thursday, saying that tests had revealed that a stash of
drugs seized by police was not as pure as originally believed. All four now
face minimum sentences of 10 years if convicted of three lesser trafficking
charges.

Standing handcuffed before the judge, Bohl seemed calm as several pages of
revised charges were read to her. She had cried during her previous two
court appearances.

"We are very relieved and we thank all the people that have been hoping
with us and still hope with us," her father, Wolfgang Bohl, told reporters
afterward.

Germany, which prohibits execution under its constitution, had been
expected to lobby strongly against a death penalty for the young woman.

Bail, which had previously been denied, was set Thursday at 150,000
Singapore dollars (dlrs 82,420) on condition that her passport be impounded
upon release. Bohl's parents, who are divorced, did not say whether they
planned to post bail.

Her lawyer Subhas Anandan said that he was "quite happy" with the court's
decision. He said that he planned to contest all the charges against his
client.

Trafficking more than 500 grams (17.64 ounces) of marijuana or 15 grams
(0.5 ounces) of heroin carry a mandatory death sentence in Singapore.

Singapore has hanged at least 340 people -- most for drug offences -- since
1975, when the death penalty became mandatory for drug traffickers and
murderers. Authorities say that the city-state's low crime rate and
stability are due to its tough attitude toward crime.

In August 1994, Dutchman Johannes Van Damme became the first Westerner to
hang for drug offences in Singapore, despite pleas for clemency from the
Dutch government and Holland's Queen Beatrix.

Van Damme was caught in 1991 at Singapore's Changi Airport with about 4.5
kilograms (10 pounds) of heroin in his suitcase.

Bohl and her alleged accomplices -- Sunaiza Binte Hamzah, 22, Hamdan
Mohamad, 33, and Mahdi Ibrahim Bamadhaj, 21 -- are accused of trafficking
281.6 grams (9.93 ounces) of marijuana; 382.2 grams (13.48 ounces) of
tetrahydrocannibol and cannibinol; and 25 grams (0.88 ounces) of
methamphetamine.

Tetrahydrocannibol or THC is the psychoactive chemical found in cannabis.

Bohl also faces one charge of consumption of the tranquilizer ketamine and
10 charges of possession of a number of drugs, including speed and ketamine.

She spent most of her teen-age years in Singapore, where her parents used
to live, and recently completed studies at the Singapore German School.