Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar confirmed via social media today that he had commuted the death sentence of three Mexican nationals who were facing the gallows after being found guilty of drug offenses.
In response to the news, Mexico’s ambassador to Malaysia, Carlos Felix Corona, presented the Sultan with a letter of gratitude from the country’s foreign minister, Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubon.
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The trio of men, all brothers, were arrested by police in Johor in March 2008, following a raid on a methamphetamine lab in the state.
Simon, Luis Alfonso, and Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal, who hail from the drug-violence riddled state of Sinaloa, have maintained their innocence. They told the courts that they were hired to clean the Malaysian building, and had no idea that a lab was inside.
The brothers were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging in May 2012. The conviction was upheld the following year on appeal.
While Mexico does not have a death penalty, their government did not dispute the Johor court’s verdict. However, they had pushed over the years to have the trio’s sentence commuted.
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