Prosecutor demands 2 Thai nationals be sentenced to 18 years for smuggling crystal meth in their stomachs
Prakob Seetasang and Adison Phonlamat, two Thai nationals who were allegedly caught at the Bali airport smuggling a total of 1.08 kg of crystal meth inside of their stomachs in May, could be facing nearly two decades in prison after the prosecutor in their case demanded that they be sentenced to 18 years.
Speaking at the Denpasar Court, prosecutor Ni Made Suasti Ariani said the two men were guilty of violating Article 113 of Indonesia’s 2009 Narcotics Law.
“We demand the panel of judges to sentence [them] to 18 years in prison … and fined IDR2billion (US$142,000),” Suasti said yesterday as quoted by Nusa Bali.
The prosecutor’s demand is actually lighter than the maximum sentences of death or life imprisonment that the two could have received under Indonesia’s notoriously harsh drug laws.
Seetasang and Phonlamat were arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport in May, after customs officers grew suspicious when they went through airport security.
The two foreigners were then promptly checked by authorities, and put through a body and X-ray scan at a local hospital. The latter showed that their digestive tracts contained suspicious foreign objects, and it was later confirmed to be narcotics that both men had hidden by swallowing them.
Ngurah Rai International Airport Customs’ chief, Himawan Indarjano had said then that Seetasang and Phonlamat swallowed 49 and 51 plastic packages containing crystal meth – known locally as shabu – respectively.
Police said the crystal meth was estimated to have a market value of IDR1.48 billion (US$105,184).
