Photo: IC

A livestreamer with 150,000 followers from Southwest China’s Sichuan Province has been handed a life sentence on illegal possession charges after one of his followers offered him payment for collecting a package containing banned substances.

In 2019, Mu Song, the livestreamer from Muchuan county in Sichuan, flew from Sichuan to neighboring Shaanxi Province to collect a luggage as per the directions of a follower and was apprehended as part of a covert police operation. 
 
The police seized five cannisters of suspected drugs weighing 3,255.17 grams from Mu’s luggage, with over 50 percent containing heroin. 
 
On August 23, 2021, the Xi’an Intermediate People’s Court in Shaanxi sentenced Mu to life in prison on the charge of illegal possession of drugs, against which Mu lodged an appeal.
 
The Shaanxi Provincial High People’s Court revoked the first trial verdict on the grounds of “unclear facts and insufficient evidence” and remanded to the intermediate court for retrial.
 
Following the retrial, the Xi’an Intermediate People’s Court upheld the ruling of life imprisonment for “illegal possession of drugs” which Mu further appealed. 
 
According to the trial details, the Xi’an People’s Procuratorate accused Mu of “transporting drugs,” whereas Xi 'an Intermediate People’s Court decided that there was insufficient evidence for Mu to constitute the crime and altered the charge to “illegal possession of drugs,” Thepaper.cn reported.
 
Mu insisted that he was innocent, claiming that he was tricked and saying that he had no idea that he was being asked to transport illegal drugs, and that he did not control or ever possess drugs. 
 
Mu’s lawyer contended that Mu maintained a high profile during the entire incident of collecting the delivery, which proved that he had no idea that he was being asked to transport heroin. Adding that there was no direct evidence to show that he was aware of the illicit content of the package he was being asked to collect. 
 
During the retrial, the Xi’an Intermediate People’s Court stated that all the evidence collected from Mu’s text messages in his mobile phone, data of his journey from Sichuan to Shaanxi proved Mu’s knowledge of the possible cannister of drugs in the luggage at the request from the “upper” drug dealer, who offered a payment significantly higher than a normal courier would be entitled to. 
 
The court verdict did not specify where the drugs came from or where they were going, and the police statement said that Mu tested negative for urine tests of drugs, according to Thepaper.cn.
 
Mu has refused to accept the retrial verdict and will appeal again.
 
Global Times