Aug 13 for verdict on appeal over validity of drug-trafficking law

Two South Africans and a Peruvian will know on August 13 whether they would succeed in their Federal Court appeal against their death sentence for drug-trafficking.

The Federal Court has set that date for the decision on the appeal by South Africans Letitia Bosman and Benjamin William Hawkes, as well as Peruvian Jorge Crespo Gomez.

The crux of the trio’s appeal is premised on the argument that a 1983 amendment to the Dangerous Drugs Act, which imposes the mandatory death sentence on those convicted for drug trafficking, is...