Save Raja Munirah

The Star - 27/09/2007

Raja Munira: Sentenced to four months' jail by a Japanese court

ANOTHER pretty girl has been duped into smuggling drugs abroad.

Utusan Malaysia front-paged the shattered dream of 22-year-old Raja Munira Raja Iskandar, who ended up in jail instead of securing the high paying job that was promised to her in Japan.

A Japanese court sentenced her to four months' jail for attempting to traffic several packets of syabu at the Narita International Airport on Dec 20 last year.

Raja Munira, 22, a mass communication student of a private college, claimed she was innocent of the charge.

She alleged that an Iranian man whom she knew as Milad had cheated and exploited her into smuggling the synthetic drugs.

Defence counsel Rosal Azimin Ahmad claimed that the Iranian man had promised Raja Munira a post as a public relations officer in a company in Japan.

On her arrival at the airport, the Iranian man allegedly made her carry through the Customs checkpoint a luggage of which she did not know the contents.

She was detained when the drugs were found while the Iranian, who had passed through the checkpoint earlier, went scot-free.

Syndicate “taking over” old quarters of the Sungai Buloh Leprosy Hospital

KOSMO! front-paged a report of a syndicate “taking over” several old quarters of the Sungai Buloh Leprosy Hospital and renting out the units to 29 Indonesians – with working permits – at just RM50 monthly each.

Adding to the disturbing discovery, the tabloid said 71 illegal Indonesian workers had cleared 12ha of the hospital grounds for planting and building their kongsi (living quarters).

The daily quoted Immigration enforcement director Datuk Ishak Mohamad as saying that 63 Indonesians were nabbed in a 3am raid on Tuesday for several offences, including being in possession of expired or false travel documents or not carrying any kind of document.

He said the raid was conducted after the foreign workers ignored several eviction notices by the hospital.

On another immigration issue, the department admitted in a front-page report in Sinar Harian that there has lately been an influx of Africans into the country.

Last year, 100 were arrested for misusing their travel documents while 99 have been caught so far this year.

The paper quoted Ishak as saying that the department would monitor their movements closely as many of them overstayed and were involved in criminal activities.