Death penalty confirmed for Mexican brothers in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, April 23
The Federal Court of Malaysia on Thursday upheld the death penalty for three Mexican brothers, exhausting all legal options the brothers have to escape the gallows, Efe news agency reported.

The brothers Luis Alfonso, Simon and Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal, arrested for drug-trafficking seven years ago, were accompanied to the court in the administrative capital of Putrajaya by family members and Mexican ambassador Carlos Felix.

The five-judge bench dismissed the defence arguments that the seized drugs had been tampered with and that other evidence also showed inconsistencies.

"With our arguments, we have tried to make the court understand that the chain of custody regarding the main proof against my clients had broken down. The judges have not accepted our explanations," Kitson Foong, a defence lawyer, told Efe.

"Now is the time to be with the family and the boys before they are transferred. We will evaluate the next steps to be taken," he added.

The three brothers, together with two others, were arrested on March 4, 2008, during a police raid in the city of Johor Bahru, bordering Singapore.

Police confiscated around 29 kg of methamphetamine, worth $15 million, though nearly a third of the drugs disappeared from custody.

On May 17, 2012, all five charged were sentenced to death by hanging.

The defence team challenged the verdict in the Court of Appeal, which ratified the punishment in August 2013.

Their last recourse from capital punishment lies in seeking royal pardon from Malaysia's figurehead royalty.