Eight Nigerians and a Cambodian woman accused of dealing in drugs from the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Church in Meanchey district would know their fate on September 12, a Cambodian Municipal court ruled on Tuesday, August 9, 2016.
The eight Nigerian men were accused of dealing in crystal methamphetamine from a Phnom Penh church in 2014 and early 2015.
The trial ended on Tuesday, with the Cambodian woman claiming she had no idea that the smartphone boxes she delivered to the Nigerians in 2014 were filled with drugs.
The Cambodiadaily.com reports that during the final day of questioning at the Municipal Court, Nigerian national Favour Nnabuife Okorom, 36, and the Cambodian defendant, Mam Vinyong, 25, were questioned over their involvement in a drug ring.
It was gathered that Ms. Vinyong admitted to delivering smartphone boxes for defendant Tony Mmaduka Chukwuonye, but claimed she was unaware that there were drugs inside.
The Cambodian woman claimed the duo became close after meeting at the MFM church following the end of her previous relationship, she said, adding that Okorom had paid for powdered milk for her baby.
“At the end of October and early November, I delivered the goods two or three times, and in December I delivered them one more time,” she said, adding that she was paid $100 per day for acting as a courier.
“Mr. Tony just told me they contained valuable objects and I thought they might be brand-new smartphones,” she said.
However, Roeung Pheap, a bureau chief at the Interior Ministry’s anti-drug department, refuted Ms. Vinyong’s claim of innocence.
“Before we went to arrest her, our undercover officers reported that she was delivering the drugs to other dealers, and we know Mr. Tony was the one who often ordered her to do it,” he said.
Okorom was reported to have denied the claims of Ms. Vinyong as well as the seven other Nigerian defendants who testified during two previous days of hearings.
“I had only lived in Cambodia for two months and had never been to KFC,” Okorom said when asked about receiving drugs from Ms. Vinyong at a KFC restaurant at Phnom Penh’s Sovanna Shopping Center.
The Municipal court however, said that verdict would be given on the case on September 12.
