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13 Dec South African woman executed in China
Janice Bronwyn Linden a 38 year old South African woman convicted of drug smuggling in China, has been executed.
The execution was carried out by lethal injection, more than three years after Linden’s arrest and after Chinese authorities had rejected an appeal by President Jacob Zuma to spare her life.
Reports in China said Chinese authorities allowed two of Ms Linden's sisters to spend an hour with her before she was executed.
Linden was arrested in November 2008 after being found in possession of 3kg of methamphetamine on her arrival at the airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
She claimed the drugs had been planted in her suitcase.
However, both the Guangdong High Court and the Supreme Court in Beijing rejected her appeal against the death sentence.
A spokesman for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Clayson Monyela, told the press that President Zuma had intervened in a bid to commute the death sentence to a life sentence.
"All the necessary interventions were done at every possible level, even the highest ones," Monyela said.
However, he said that while South Africa disagreed with China over the death penalty, Linden’s execution would not affect diplomatic and trade relations.
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