BEIJING: A Colombian model is facing death penalty or life imprisonment in China after she was recently charged with drugs smuggling.
Juliana Lopez, a 22-year-old model, arrested for allegedly attempting to bring psychedelic drugs hidden in her computer through the Guangzhou Airport in Guangzhou province on July 18.
She is in China to stock up on cloths for a cloth shop she runs back home, according to China Radio International. She was also due to compete in the compete in the Miss World Medellin pageant.
Lopez’s family are trying to raise money to find a lawyer for her, according to reports reaching here.
The family, which initially lost contact with her, were able to find her whereabouts through the Colombian Embassy in Beijing.
“My heart tells me she is not guilty,” her friend Lis Hernandez told the website. “You cannot condemn her yet, I have hope that she is innocent and everything is clear.”
China is very strict about drug smuggling. Very few of those arrested on this charge are ever left off after court trials.
Chinese prosecutors are also expected to seek death sentence for an Australian jockey who was caught trying to fly from Guangzhou to Australia with more than three kilograms of crystal meth last year.
In another case, a 31-year-old Paraguayan woman is also facing the death sentence in a Chinese prison following her 2012 arrest for drug trafficking.
