Umno bureau to help bring back two female Malaysian drug mules stranded in Peru
MOHD ISKANDAR IBRAHIM
New Straits Times19 March 2018
KUALA LUMPUR: Two Malaysian women, including a former drug mule, who are stranded in Peru will be brought home this Monday.
Umno Welfare Bureau chairman Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah said four representatives of the bureau, led by its secretary Mohd Awie Shoubli Jamal, would leave for Peru tomorrow night to help bring the duo back.
He said efforts to bring the two women – Noor Azimah Sapie, 38, and 36-year-old Noor Suzanna Azmi – were begun a year ago with the aid of Wisma Putra.
However, he said, the process had taken some time as the documentation process had been complicated.
“Bureau representatives will help finalise the documentation process and then bring them back. They are expected to arrive back in Malaysia about 2pm on March 26.
“Along with the two women, we will bring back to Malaysia Noor Azimah’s daughter, Qistina Maisara Alarcon Sapie and Noor Suzanna’s husband Garlin Lever Quispe Sanchez, a Peruvian citizen, and their children Muhammad Duler Akasyah Salas Azmi and Garlin Junior Quispe Azmi,” he told reporters at the bureau’s headquarters.
Shamsul Anuar said the bureau would bear the RM150,000 cost of bringing back the women and their families.
The amount, he said, included flight tickets and the fine which the women would have to pay for overstaying in Peru.
“We are bringing all of them to Malaysia as it would not be fair to break up the families. Actually, they were supposed to have come back by January, but the process took a little longer than expected... I am glad that we are now coming to the end of that process,” he said.
Asked what would happen after the women were brought home, Shamsul Anuar said the bureau was planning to organise a nationwide roadshow for them to share their experiences to raise awareness among the people about how someone could fall prey to drug syndicates.
He said this was necessary as there have been many cases of people falling prey to drug syndicates and becoming mules, and not just in Peru.
Noor Azimah was said to have almost fallen prey to one such syndicate, but was lucky enough not to have been used by the syndicate as she did not have the proper travel documents.
However, the same lack of travel documents meant she could not leave Peru.
Meanwhile, Noor Suzanna and another Malaysian woman, Syzlin Hathaman, 43, were imprisoned in Peru. They were released several years ago but due to the lack of travel documents, were unable to leave the country.
Syzlin died at Hospital Nacional Dos De Mayo in Lima on Oct 7 last year die to several medical problems, including asthma and diabetes.
The bureau and Berita Harian were instrumental in bringing back Syzlin’s remains, which were buried in her hometown of Larkin, 10 days after she died. © New Straits Times Press
