The ashes of executed drug mule Janice Linden have been returned to her family, the international relations and cooperation department said on Thursday.
Spokesperson Clayson Monyela said Linden’s ashes were handed to the family by a department official on Wednesday.
Linden was executed by lethal injection in China on December 12 after being convicted of drug smuggling.
The 38-year-old Durban woman was arrested in November 2008. She was found with 3kg of methamphetamine on her arrival at the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou’s airport.
Linden maintained her innocence until her death, saying the drugs had been planted in her luggage. Both the Guangdong High Court and Supreme Court in Beijing rejected her appeal.
The SABC on Thursday quoted family spokesperson and Linden’s nephew, Nthando Mthalane, as saying they wanted to bury Linden’s ashes next to her mother’s grave. Her mother died last year. — Sapa