original story

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Burmese drug convict executed

A Burmese drug convict was executed on Tuesday, the first in Thailand this year.

Hla Win, 60, who was on death row for attempting to smuggle 11.2kg of heroin out of
Thailand, was shot dead at Bang Khwang maximum security prison, Corrections
Department officials said yesterday.

He was the second inmate to receive capital punishment for heroin trafficking in recent
years, they added.

Altogether, 16 prisoners were executed in Thailand in 1999, including one woman and
Thaung Nyunt, 51, an illegal Burmese immigrant accused of killing his Thai wife, her
nephew and niece with an axe three years ago.

Hla Win received a death sentence after he was found guilty of attempting to smuggle
11.2kg of heroin out of Bangkok Airport to Indonesia in 1993.

Hla Win, who denied his guilt and appealed his case to the Supreme Court, had allegedly
used a Nepalese woman to act as his courier.-dpa

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