Brit 'caught accepting half a pound of cocaine from a drug smuggler in police sting' faces 12 years in jail in Bali
An Argentine woman and a British man went on trial Thursday on charges of smuggling cocaine to the Indonesian tourist island of Bali.
If convicted, they could face up to 12 years in prison.
Prosecutors say Eleonora Gracia, 46, was arrested in March at Bali's airport with 244 grams (half a pound) of cocaine wrapped in a condom hidden in her vagina.
Authorities alleged that she handed over the cocaine to Elliot James Shaw, 50, during a police sting operation at a hotel near a Bali beach.
Prosecutors at the District Court in Denpasar, Bali's provincial capital, said they violated anti-narcotics laws that carry a penalty of up to 12 years in prison.
After the charges against Gracia and Shaw were read out in the Bali court, a panel of three judges adjourned the trial until July 3. The court is expected to deliver its verdict next month.
Gracia and Shaw wore face masks as they sat next to each other in court. Neither they nor their lawyers spoke in court or to reporters covering the trial.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.
Indonesian authorities on Monday arrested 285 people suspected of drug trafficking, including 29 women and seven foreigners, and seized over half a ton of narcotics during a two-month crackdown.
About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections' data showed last month.
Indonesia's last executions, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.
It comes after it emerged three Britons held in Bali over an alleged cocaine smuggling plot will not face the death penalty, a major reprieve in a country with some of the world's toughest drug laws.
Indonesian prosecutors said they were seeking 12 months in prison for the three British nationals, all from Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex, accused of drug offences on the resort island.
Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 38, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 39, were arrested on February 1 after being stopped at Bali's international airport with 17 packages of cocaine that weighed nearly a kilogram, according to public court records.
They appeared in court alongside Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, who was allegedly due to receive the packages and was arrested a few days later in February.
'(Demanding the court) to sentence the defendants to one year in prison and to keep them in detention,' prosecutor Made Dipa Umbara told the district court in Bali's capital Denpasar.
Umbara said that while the defendants were accused of breaking the law, they behaved well in court, acknowledged their wrongdoings, and pledged not to repeat their mistakes.
The sentence call came as a surprise as convicted drug traffickers, especially those caught with large quantities, have in the past been executed by firing squad in Indonesia - including foreign nationals.
If the quantity is large but not enough for the death penalty, life in prison is a common sentence. The country has upheld a moratorium on the death sentence since 2017.
The British Foreign Office said it was in touch with local authorities about the case.
'We are providing consular support to three British Nationals detained in Indonesia,' a spokesperson said.
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