MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Death penalty not the solution to our problems

A few days ago, social media was abuzz with discussions about the death penalty sentence that has been imposed on Lesedi Molapisi, a 30-year-old Botswana woman who was arrested for smuggling drugs into Bangladesh earlier this year.

Molapisi, who was arrested on arrival at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, had arrived on a Qatar Airways flight from OR Tambo International Airport, which had arrived in Dhaka via Doha. Upon arrival,  airport’s customs officials and an intelligence agents intercepted Molapisi while she was crossing the green channel – the passage for arriving passengers with no goods to declare. It was upon searching her luggage that 3kg of heroin was found...