Bali: Frenchman charged with drug smuggling; Briton to appeal death sentence

Kerobokan prison, Bali

Denpasar. A Frenchman who tried to smuggle 69 grams of marijuana into the country earlier this year was formally charged on Thursday at the Denpasar District Court.

Vincent Roger Petrone was detained by custom officials on Jan. 29 after he arrived in Bali from Kuala Lumpur.

Prosecutor I Gusti Putu Atmaja told the court that officials at Ngurah Rai International Airport thought he was acting suspicious, which led authorities to take Petrone to a local hospital for a full-body examination. An X-ray revealed that his stomach was packed with four round capsules containing a brown paste-like substance.

Atmaja said a police forensics examination in Denpasar on Feb. 18 confirmed that the substance was marijuana.

“In the international black market the hashish could fetch Rp 42 million [$4,324],” Atmaja said.

Petrone, a plasterer who was born in Dijon, eastern France but whose current address was given by the court as the French Pacific island territory of New Caledonia, could face death if convicted as capital punishment sentences can be handed down to people caught trying to smuggle in drugs weighing more than five grams.

British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death in January after she was caught smuggling nearly five kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $2.4 million into Bali. Last week she lost her first bid to get her death sentence lifted, and now faces a last-ditch appeal to Indonesia’s highest court to avoid the firing squad.

Source: JakartaGlobe, April 18, 2013

Briton to appeal Bali death sentence to top court next week

Typical cell at Kerobokan prison

A British grandmother on death row for trafficking drugs into Bali will lodge an appeal with Indonesia's highest court next week after losing a first bid to get the sentence lifted, her lawyer said Friday.

"We are going to send the notification that we are appealing to the Supreme Court next week, on Tuesday or Wednesday," Fadillah Agus, lawyer for Lindsay Sandiford, told AFP.

Sandiford was sentenced to death in January after cocaine with a street value of $2.4 million was found in her suitcase as she arrived on the resort island last May, a shock verdict after prosecutors recommended 15 years.

Police said she was at the centre of a drugs-importing ring involving 3 other Britons - but the 56-year-old claimed she was forced to transport the drugs in order to protect her children whose safety was at stake.

Last week she lost her 1st appeal to the Bali High Court after a closed hearing of 3 judges decided the lower court's original sentence had been "accurate and correct".

If the Supreme Court rejects her appeal, she can seek a judicial review of the decision from the same court. After that, only the president can grant her a reprieve.

Most people handed the death penalty for drugs offences in Indonesia fail to get their sentences lifted on appeal and face a long wait in jail before being taken to a remote, undisclosed location at night and executed by firing squad.

Source: Agence France-Presse, April 19, 2013