PETALING JAYA: Pope Francis has thanked Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar for pardoning three Mexican citizens last year who were sentenced to death for drug trafficking crimes.
Vatican City secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Pope was grateful for the sultan’s “act of clemency” and subsequent help in the representation of siblings Simon, Luis Alfonso and Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal, who were arrested in a raid on a methamphetamine lab in Johor in March 2008.
“His Holiness prays that this act of compassion will be an encouragement for all people to renew their commitment to building a world marked by forgiveness, peace and a spirit of fraternal solidarity,” said Parolin in a letter delivered to the sultan by Archbishop Joseph Salvador Marino, the Pope’s envoy to Malaysia.
“Invoking upon Your Majesty and the members of the Royal Family an abundance of joy and peace. Pope Francis reiterates his profound gratitude,” the letter said.
AFP reported last year that the pardon for the trio followed years of lobbying by Mexican diplomats.
Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar commuted the men’s death sentences to life in prison, Mexico’s foreign ministry said recently.
“This was the result of a long process and intense dialogue with Malaysian federal authorities,” it said in a statement.
The three brothers, who were sentenced to hang in 2012, had pleaded innocence, saying they had been hired to clean a building where the drug was found. Their conviction was upheld the following year. - FMT
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