Britons accused of hiding cocaine in Angel Delight face death penalty in Bali

Telegraph

2 days ago

Three British people accused of smuggling cocaine hidden in Angel Delight sachets are facing the death penalty in Bali.
Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 38, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 39, were arrested on Feb 1 after being stopped at Bali's international airport with 17 packages of the drug that weighed nearly a kilogramme in total, prosecutors said.
They appeared in court in Denpasar on Tuesday, alongside Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, who was allegedly due to receive the packages and arrested a few days later.
Mr Collyer and Ms Stocker, who are reported to be a couple, were stopped by security at the X-ray machine after 'suspicious' items were detected in their suitcases.
They were taken to a separate area, where staff found cocaine in blue plastic packages labelled 'Angel Delight' in Mr Collyer's luggage. More cocaine was found in seven plastic bags in Ms Stocker's suitcase.
The drugs were brought from England to Indonesia with a transit in Doha international airport in Qatar, prosecutor Made Dipa Umbara said.
Mr Umbara told the court that cocaine seized from the trio was worth an estimated 6 billion rupiah (£271,000).
The group had successfully smuggled cocaine into Bali on two previous occasions before being caught on their third attempt, said Ponco Indriyo, the deputy director of the Bali police narcotics unit.
After the charges were read out, the panel of three judges adjourned the trial until June 10, when the court will hear witness testimony.
The defendants and their lawyers declined to comment to reporters after the hearing.
The three Britons could face the death penalty under Indonesia's strict drug laws, although it has upheld a moratorium on the death sentence since 2017.
Convicted drug smugglers have in the past been executed by firing squad.
The British embassy in Jakarta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Foreigners on death row
President Prabowo Subianto's administration has moved in recent months to repatriate several high-profile inmates, all sentenced for drug offences, back to their home countries.
Serge Atlaoui, a Frenchman, returned to France in February after Jakarta and Paris agreed a deal to repatriate him on 'humanitarian grounds' because he was ill.
In December, Indonesia took Mary Jane Veloso, who was found guilty of drug trafficking in 2010, off death row and returned her to the Philippines.
It also sent the five remaining members of the 'Bali Nine' drug ring, who were serving heavy prison sentences, back to Australia.
According to Indonesia's ministry of immigration and corrections, 96 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, before Veloso's release.