Burmese drug baron Ibrahim Koko repatriated after seven years

MoFA, Interior Ministry confirm deportation in report presented to IHC

ISLAMABAD:

Burmese drug baron Ibrahim Koko was sent back to Myanmar after being imprisoned in Pakistan since 2015, it was reported on Friday.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Interior Ministry confirmed in a report presented to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that Koko - who was deported to Pakistan based on his fake documents - was a Burmese national.

The drug peddler was transported back to Myanmar following the confirmation of his identity.

It was clarified further that the Burmese Embassy had arranged for Koko’s travel documents, after which he was deported from Islamabad on August 10.

In July, a single-member bench of the IHC, comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, had ordered the repatriation of the drug trafficker before September 16.

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He had directed concerned authorities to prepare his travel documents. After his departure, the court disposed of his application.

Koko was deported from Thailand to Pakistan in 2015 after being convicted in a drug smuggling case. He was issued a Pakistani passport by the country’s diplomatic mission in Thailand based on a fake domicile from Khushab.

However, he was caught by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) soon after.

On June 27, 2016, a special judge Islamabad sentenced him to 16 years and his accomplices, Naveed and Tanveer, to 7.7 years imprisonment, in addition to a fine of Rs0.6million.

Later in 2017, the IHC ordered that the accused be deported to his home country where he would conclude the remaining sentence. The drug baron remained in Adiala Jail till his repatriation this August.