HKSAR v. Nanfuka Angel

HCCC195/2009

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 195 OF 2009

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Transcript of the Audio Recording

of the Sentence in the above Case

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COURT:  The defendant pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a dangerous drug, contrary to section 4(1)(a) and (3) of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Cap. 134.

The defendant arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Her suitcase was searched by Customs officers, and a body search on her revealed that she had hidden dangerous drugs in her vagina and anus.  Eventually a total of 98 pellets of drugs were retrieved from her body. 

Although she denied knowledge of such at first, she eventually came to admit that she was delivering the drugs, and after arrival in Hong Kong, someone would arrange to collect them from her.

Upon analysis, the drugs were found to be 898.43 grammes of a mixture containing a total of 523.62 grammes of heroin hydrochloride.

The retail value of the heroin was slightly more than HK$441,000.

By way of mitigation, I was told that the defendant is aged 26, a citizen of Uganda, with a clear criminal record.  She is a single mother to a girl who is now aged 3, and before the arrest she used to be a hairdresser in Uganda, and she took care of her parents, sisters, brothers and two children in the family.

It is advanced on her behalf that she committed the present offence due to inducement by another person back in Uganda, who promised to help her set up her own hairdressing salon should she successfully deliver the drugs to Hong Kong.

In sentencing the defendant, I have taken into account the nature of the offence, the drugs involved, and the sentencing authorities and tariffs.  I have also taken into account mitigation advanced by counsel on her behalf and mitigation contained in the defendant’s own handwritten letter.

For trafficking in heroin weighing between 400 to 600 grammes, a starting point of between 15 to 20 years is to be adopted.

Although the case of HKSAR v Abdullah Anwar Abbas CACC305/2008 deals with trafficking in heroin exceeding 600 grammes, the Court of Appeal there reiterated the principle in sentencing trafficking cases with an international element as laid down in the case of Hong Chang Chi (2002) 1 HKLRD 486:

“When it comes to importing drugs from other jurisdictions into Hong Kong, the public interest demands that the message should be made more clearly than in almost any other situation.  Drug traffickers from abroad importing drugs into Hong Kong should plainly understand that they will receive no sympathetic consideration whatsoever on account of their status as foreigners or, as in this case, on account of their incarceration some distance from home.  On the contrary, in cases of this kind, the very act of importation from abroad is an aggravating factor.  Those who live outside this jurisdiction, such as the applicant in the present case, must be disabused of any notion that Hong Kong is anything other than resolute in dealing with such offences.”

Taking into account the international factor and the amount of drugs involved in the present case, I adopt a starting point of 18½ years.

I shall give this defendant the full one-third discount for a guilty plea.

She is sentenced to 148 months that is 12 years and 4 months’ imprisonment.