Female Danish Trafficker Sent Back Home 13 Years Early

A Danish woman serving 15 years in prison for attempting to traffic more than 10,000 over-the-counter painkillers from Cambodia to North America has been handed over to Danish authorities and returned to Copenhagen less than two years into her sentence, an official with the Danish Embassy in Phnom Penh said yesterday.

Tom Hansen, head of representation for the Danish Embassy, said yesterday that Johanne Vintner Axelsen, 56, flew out of Phnom Penh on Wednesday night after being transferred into the custody of two Danish police officers.

Chat Sineang, chief of the CC2 correctional facility for women and children at Prey Sar prison, said yesterday that Ms Axelsen had been released last week under a court order that was received by the prison.

Ms Axelsen was arrested in April 2008 when she tried to post thousands of pills stuffed in children?s toys, clothes and envelopes to addresses in the US and Canada, actions which authorities said constituted international drug trafficking.

By law, convicts become eligible for parole once they have served two-thirds of their sentences. Mr Hansen said Ms Axelsen would appear before a Danish judge but that her ultimate status was not yet known.

Mr Hansen said the Danish and Cambodian justice ministries held lengthy negotiations about returning Ms Axelsen to Denmark.

?We don?t have any bilateral agreement on this type of thing, so this is done on a case-by-case basis,? Mr Hansen said. ?I must underline the very cooperative way in which the government of Cambodia negotiated with us and thank them gratefully for making this humanitarian decision.?

The embassy ?served as the intermediary between the government of Denmark and the government of Cambodia.... I don?t know anything about what will happen when she returns to Copenhagen,? he said.

?It is quite obvious she will have to go in front of a judge when she returns and find out how they will handle the case, with regards to Danish laws and regulations.?

According to online news website ScandAsia, Danish pensioner Mikkel Hass in February donated the court-ordered $8,000 fine issued to Ms Alexson. ?The 8,000 dollars was the fine, which Johanne Axelsen had to pay before the transfer procedure negotiated between Denmark and Cambodia could proceed,? the website said in its article published Saturday.

Sourced = The Cambodia Daily