Image: Two men behind bars. Credit: psychologytoday.com
Two Thai men, Prakob Seetasang, 29, and Adison Phonlamat, 29, were sentenced to 16 years in prison, at the Denpasar District Court, yesterday after being proven guilty of attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into Bali.
The judges, who were led by Heriyanti, stated the defendants should also pay a Rp 2 billion fine, or be sentenced to a further one year in prison.
The defendants were proven guilty of attempting to smuggle the drugs found inside their stomachs. Prakob swallowed 49 packages of crystal meth with a total weight of 482.49 grams, while his colleague, Adison, swallowed 51 packages weighing 507.02 grams.
Public Prosecutor, Ni Made Suarti Ariani, had previously demanded that the defendants should be sentenced to 18 years in jail. Both the defendants and the Public Prosecutor, however stated that they accepted the verdict.
The case began when the two defendants left their jobs to become couriers after they were offered a big sum of money. They departed from Bangkok on May 13, 2019 at around 2am with an AirAsia flight arriving in Bali around dawn. Customs officers became suspicious as they were passing through the custom’s check point and decided to investigate them further. Suspecting they had swallowed the contraband, the two men were eventually taken to BMIC Hospital to be x-rayed. The examination results indicated that there were suspicious objects in both the defendants’ digestive tracts. They were held until the 100 plastic packages containing the crystal meth were discharged and then the men were handed over to Bali’s National Narcotics Agency (BNNP) for further processing.
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