Workers carry goods onto a truck as they prepare to head to the province for their clients in Phnom Penh on Jan 9, 2023.
(TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP)
PHNOM PENH – A Cambodian court on Wednesday convicted an American man and his Nigerian accomplice of drug trafficking and sentenced each of them to 25 years in prison, according to a verdict.
American Matthew David Sample, 40, and Nigerian David Vincent, 48, were arrested in Phnom Penh in February 2021 for allegedly trafficking 1.31 kg of crystal meth and nimetazepam.
During a hearing in December last year, American Matthew David Sample, 40, and Nigerian David Vincent, 48, confessed to the crime, saying that they possessed the drugs and tried to sell them for money, as they had no jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic
The two men were charged with "drug possession, transport and trafficking" under Article 40 of the Cambodian Law on Drugs Control, said the verdict read by Phnom Penh Municipal Court's Presiding Judge Kim Sokunthea.
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"Based on the seized evidence, the court has found them guilty of illicit drug possession, transport and trafficking," the verdict said. "Therefore, the court decides to sentence each of them to 25 years in prison."
The court also ordered both of them to pay a fine of 10,000 U.S. dollars, it added.
According to the verdict, the court also sentenced another Cambodian accomplice Theam Tola, 34, to three years in jail and fined him 1,000 dollars over the same case.
During a hearing in December last year, they confessed to the crime, saying that they possessed the drugs and tried to sell them for money, as they had no jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Southeast Asian nation has no death sentence for illicit drug traffickers. Under its law, those found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grams of illicit drugs could be imprisoned for life.
According to the country's Anti-Drug Police Department, the authorities arrested 14,784 drug-related suspects in 2022, seizing a total of 14.5 tons of all kinds of illicit drugs.