Russian Marina Lopatina, sentenced to death in China in 2011 for drug smuggling, has been extradited to Russia to serve her sentence, RIA Novosti reported.
As reported to the agency in 2011 by the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Beijing, the Zhuhai court sentenced Marina Lopatina, born in 1973, a resident of Khabarovsk, to death with a two-year suspended sentence for drug smuggling. She is accused of attempting to smuggle two kilograms of heroin from the Macau Special Administrative Region to mainland China.
Lopatina, the documents show, has given written consent to continue serving her sentence in her homeland. The case file also contains the consent of both parties to the transfer and acceptance of the convicted woman.
The Russian court upheld the verdict of the Chinese court and, in accordance with domestic criminal law, recognized the woman as convicted under the old Article 188 of the Criminal Code, which is no longer in force. Lopatina was sentenced to 12 years in a general regime penal colony, of which she still has six years, six months and 24 days to serve in the Russian Federation.
The convicted woman has already returned to her homeland. According to court documents, she was placed in a general regime penal colony.