The High Court in Alor Star sentenced Thai tourist-van drivers Iproheng Yeetuwa, 37, and Mueseh Mahsae, 44, to death in late June 2011 after finding them guilty of trafficking 21.6 kilograms of cannabis.[1][2][3] Amnesty International records both men by name as sentenced to death by a Malaysian court in its July to August 2011 death-penalty newsletter.[2]

Yeetuwa, from Yala, and Mahsae, from Pattani, drove the tourist van in which the cannabis was discovered in the northern state of Kedah in 2009, two years before the verdict.[1][3] Both men told the court they had not known the drugs were hidden in their vehicle.[1] The High Court judge ruled that explanation unsubstantiated, according to the New Straits Times account of the trial.[1]

The sentence was death by hanging for smuggling the load, more than 20 kilograms, into the country.[1][3] The case was first reported internationally on 1 July 2011.[1] The verdict came amid a series of similar cannabis death sentences handed down by Kedah courts that year.[3]