Indonesia sentences five foreigners for drug smuggling
Denpasar, Indonesia (AFP)-An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced an Argentine woman and four British nationals to prison in two cases, after they were found guilty of smuggling cocaine into the popular resort island of Bali.
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws, including the death penalty for traffickers, but has maintained a moratorium on executions for several years.
Argentine Eleonora Gracia was sentenced to seven years in prison, presiding judge Tenny Erma Suryanthi told the Denpasar district court in Bali.
Gracia, 46, was arrested at the island’s international airport in March with more than 244 grams of cocaine wrapped in a condom and hidden inside her genitals, local media reported, citing authorities at the airport.
Her confession led to the arrest of a British man, 50-year-old Elliot James Shaw, who was supposed to accept the illicit drugs she transported, according to local media.
The court sentenced Shaw to five and a half years in prison and ordered him to pay a 1 billion rupiah ($61,400) fine, or serve an additional three months in jail.
Also on Thursday, in a separate case, the court sentenced three other British nationals to one year in prison each for smuggling nearly one kilogram of cocaine.
Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 38, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 39, were arrested on February 1 after being stopped at the Bali airport with 17 packages containing the drug, according to court records.
The court also sentenced Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, who was allegedly due to receive the packages and was arrested a few days later in February.
It was not immediately clear why the trio received more lenient sentences compared to Gracia and Shaw, who were convicted of trafficking a smaller amount of the same illicit drug.
Indonesia has imposed the death penalty for drug smuggling, including executing convicted foreigners, but the country has not carried out an execution since announcing a moratorium in 2017.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has moved in recent months to repatriate several high-profile foreign prisoners, all sentenced for drug offences.
