Thread: Singapore : Drug addict spared caning after sex change in Thailand

Drug addict spared caning after sex change in Thailand
Khushwant Singh
Mon, 03/05/2012

A recalcitrant drug addict was spared caning as he is now a woman. A district court heard on Monday that Preeta Nivashani M. Rechnam underwent a sex change operation in Thailand in 2006.

The 40-year-old is now considered a woman and had been remanded in the Changi Women's Prison since Dec 10 last year, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Wong.

She was sentenced on Monday to seven years and three months in jail for consuming Ice.

As Preeta had served the Long-Term Imprisonment 1 (LT1) sentence of five years and three strokes of the cane in 1998 for abusing morphine, she was liable for enhanced punishment as an LT2 offender.

Addicts who return to consuming drugs after going through the level-one punishment, are jailed between seven and 13 years.

Male offenders are also caned between six and 12 strokes.

DPP Wong had told the court then that she was arrested after midnight on Dec 2 last year with two men in a room at Oxley Hotel in Lorong 10 Geylang.

Tests by the Health Sciences Authority revealed traces of Ice and heroin in her urine.

The charge for consuming heroin was taken into consideration by District Judge Liew Thiam Leng in sentencing her.

Lawyers said it was unlikely for a man to change sex just to escape caning for an offence.

'This is a very rare case of a drug addict with gender issues and the court had to accept the fact that she is now a woman,' said criminal lawyer Noor Marican.

thejakartapost.com

7 years and 3 months just for testing positive, she didn't (according to the article) have any in her possession, that's way way over the top..

^

suspect you'll be needing this :