Takuma Sakuragi, a 70-year-old Japanese politician, today went on trial for trafficking 3.3 kg of the drug methamphetamine. Sakuragi was arrested last year in the city of Guangzhou en route to Shanghai when local authorities found 28 bags of the narcotic in his luggage.

At the time of his October arrest, Sukuragi, said to be a city councilor in Aichi, Japan, told police the luggage in question came from a Nigerian business associate he met while in China. According to the arrest report, the African had given the Japanese lawmaker the suitcase where the drugs were concealed inside women's platform boots.

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Local outlets report Sakuragi is standing trial with two other defendants, also from Africa. They were named as Aly Yattabare and Mohamed Soumah. Drug trafficking carries the death penalty per Chinese law. Four Japanese citizens were executed in 2010 for possessing drugs, and China has recently instigated a harsh and well-publicized crackdown in its entertainment community for drug possession and usage. 

Curiously, Sakuragi's Chinese lawyer, does not seem to be helping his client's case, or indeed, even be positive about it. 

"[We are] attempting the impossible," Chen Weixiong is reported as saying. "The biggest challenge now is the fact that he did carry 3,200 grams of [drugs] in his bag.

"We are going to argue he was not aware of the existence of drugs," he continued. "We will try our best. The best outcome would be [an acquittal]."

Chen said defending the elderly politician made him feel like "Don Quixote", the eponymous protagonist of created by Spaniard novelist Miguel de Cervantes given to fantastical stories and tall tales.

Sakuragi does not have a sympathetic public in the Middle Kingdom. He is well-known as one of the most ardent supporters of Japan's claim to a set of small islets also that China considers part of its territory that has sent relations between Asia's biggest economies into a tailspin.

The trial is on-going.

TagsTakuma Sakuragi, drug possession, drug trafficking