Latest Update: Yesterday in Tangerang

Jakarta - A Thai woman was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday for trying to smuggle 500 grams of cocaine into the country early this year, media reports said.

The West Java Banten's Tanggerang district court found Thitirat Charoensuk, 24, guilty for violating the country's tough anti-narcotic laws.

In addition to handing down a 14-year jail sentence, the court also ordered the defendant to pay a fine of 60 million rupiah (5,330 dollars), chief judge Haryono said in the court ruling, the state-run Antara News agency reported.

In previous court hearings, government prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Thitirat.

Thitirat was arrested in late February with British national Michael Anthony Guevera, Antara said, adding that the cocaine was divided into three packages, wrapped in condoms and carried in her vagina.

No news on the Brits...yet!

From Todays JP:
Tangerang court lenient on foreign drug users

Multa Fidrus , The Jakarta Post , Tangerang | Wed, 11/12/2008 6:48 PM | Jakarta

Tangerang District Court on Wednesday sentenced three foreigners caught transporting cocaine into the country through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport with far more lenient penalties than prosecutors had demanded.

The verdicts were read out in three separate sessions at the court on Wednesday.

Thitirat Charoenshuk, a Thai woman, was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment, while two British men, Michael Anthony Guevara and John Pattrick Gerard Patton, were sentenced to eight and three years, respectively.

The panel of judges said the defendants were guilty of possessing a total of 550 grams of cocaine, but were not guilty of smuggling. The judges said the foreigners were users only.

The prosecutors insisted the foreigners were smugglers and demanded death penalties for them.

Tangerang District Court is known for its harsh rulings against smugglers. Since 2000, it has sentenced more than 30 people (mostly foreigners) to death for drug offenses.

Bugger Me! A 1/2 Kilo for personal use?

Excellent news.

To quote myself:

"Law No.22/1997 on Narcotics classifies cocaine as a Category I drug, which means production and trafficking carry the death penalty (although there's a loophole that can reduce trafficking to 15 years in jail), whereas possession carries a 10-year jail sentence and personal use a 4-year jail sentence. In past cases, defendants have avoided death and got away with minor sentences by claiming to be addicts needing the drug because of addiction."