SINGAPORE, Oct. 6 -- Dutchman Johannes van Damme, who was hanged in Singapore last month for drug trafficking, had been sentenced to 10 weeks in jail in 1991 in the Netherlands for smuggling marijuana, the Straits Times newspaper reported Thursday. Van Damme, a 59-year-old engineer, was arrested at Singapore's Changi International Airport in September 1991, seven months after his conviction in Holland.
Van Damme was caught in Singapore with about 9 1/2 pounds (4.3 kg) of heroin worth approximately $3.3 million. At the time, he claimed he was not a drug trafficker and that he did not know tht the heroin was hidden in his suitcase. But his Dutch lawyer, G. Spong, who acted for him in the last week before he was executed on Sept. 23, told the Straits Times from The Hague of his client's previous conviction. According to Dutch newspapers, Van Damme was arrested in 1990 for having 22 pounds (10 kg) of marijuana. He was sentenced in absentia to 10 weeks in jail in February 1991. But he did not serve the sentence because he was living in Nigeria, where he had resided since 1976.
