China drug row: Consular access to Indian duo

Aksar Miyan and Hussain Mydeen, both hailing from Tamil Nadu, were handed down the death sentence by the Intermediate People's Court in Zhuohai in August last year.

"We have received today an intimation from the High People's Court of Guangdong province that an official can meet both on June six," sources at the Indian consulate said.

An official from the Indian Consulate General of India in Gaungzhou would meet both Aksar and Hussain and "take their statements", sources said.

The Consulate had been pursuing the matter on a regular basis to get consular access after the Ministry of External Affairs sent the "papers", sources said, adding "we were working on it".

The Ministry of External Affairs action followed a plea by the family of Aksar to plead for commutation of his death sentence to "any kind of jail term".

"The consular access to both has been given. The Consulate official will meet both," the sources added.

Aksar and Hussain were arrested in separate cases in different provinces on charge of smuggling drugs to China last year. Aksar was detained by Chinese customs in February and Hussain in Guangzhou province in March last year. The Zhuohai court verdict in both the cases came in August last year.