BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese woman has appeared in court accused of transporting panties and long johns soaked in heroin, state media said Friday.

Wang Zhiqin, 42, from Wuhan, capital of China's central province of Hubei, was charged with transporting 1.44 kg (3.2lb) of heroin soaked into 15 items of underwear, the China Daily said.

"Drug tests apparently detected heroin on them and Wang was arrested after a tip-off," the China Daily said.

Wang pleaded innocent during her trial at a Shanghai court Thursday, saying the tainted underwear had been planted in her luggage, a pink trunk, after two men in Kunming, capital of the southwestern Yunnan province, offered her a job and a plane ticket to Shanghai.

Wang's lawyer queried the investigating police's methods, who derived the quantity of heroin by weighing the drug-soaked underwear, the paper said.

"There is no evidence of the exact purity and quantity of the heroin, and there is no evidence proving Wang was aware of what she was carrying," the paper quoted the lawyer as saying.

If convicted, Wang could face the death penalty, the paper said.

The trial continues.

Quote:heroin soaked into 15 items of underwear

A different way of doing it :shock:

Lets hope that the courts can find out the "real" truth and if she was a victim be released and if guilty receive a jail sentence

Call me a cynic if you like, but I find it very hard to understand how someone can be offered a job requiring a plane trip by someone involved in drugs, then have those drugs put in the woman`s suitcase without her knowledge...etc etc. Just doesn`t ring true to me.

More like the story is a ready made stand by in the event of capture. Not saying it can`t happen, just very unlikely.

Quote:"There is no evidence of the exact purity and quantity of the heroin, and there is no evidence proving Wang was aware of what she was carrying," the paper quoted the lawyer as saying.

Hard to know as we don't really know the background and we are talking here about China

If she is guilty then a jail term is deserved, certainly not the death penalty