KARACHI, July 16: Yet another African woman is being repatriated to her country of origin with the assistance of philanthropists and NGOs on Sunday. Marian Kwarteng, a Ghana national, was convicted in a drug trafficking case and had completed her sentence but was not able to pay the air fare to return home. She is now set to leave the country by a Kenya Airlines flight via Dubai.

Kwarteng is the 15th foreign prisoner to have received financial and other support from local philanthropists and NGOs in such a situation over the past few months.

She had been arrested at the Jinnah International Airport on March 14, 2004 with 45 capsules containing a total of 450 grams of heroin. She was booked under sections 9 b of the CNS Act 1997 by Customs police.

She had pleaded guilty in the case and prayed for mercy. The court concerned sentenced her to a 30-month imprisonment with a fine of Rs50,000.

An NGO, the Legal Aid Office (LAO) led by a former Supreme Court judge Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid provided her with free legal aid. Later, the Sindh High Court reduced her sentence by six months and wrote off the fine money.

Superintendent of the Special Prison for Women Sheeba Shah told Dawn that the jail authorities had received information regarding Kwarteng’s deportation order. She said that officials of the Special Branch would be coming to the jail on Sunday evening to take the prisoner to the air port.

The LAO’s Sadia Sohail said that the other women prisoners repatriated to their countries of origin over the past few months were Rosa Cencetta (Italy), Tolani Abedi Badmus (Nigeria), Loveth Oghogo (Nigeria), Aicha Jiarrasouba (Nigeria), Asimwe Gift and her baby girl Sulamith Gift (Uganda), Ngozi Coullibuly and her baby boy (Nigeria), Adama Camara and her baby boy (Nigeria), Ezeh Christiana Elizabeth (Nigeria), Sandra Okoro and her baby boy (Nigeria), Sheribah M. Sorya (Kenya), Aynura Yaqub and her baby girl (Azerbaijan), Diana Silvia (Indonesia), Azeezat (Nigeria) and Awa Aziz and her baby (Nigeria).