Filipino Sentenced To Eight Tears For Smuggling Drug

Denpasar (Antara Bali) - The Denpasar District Court sentenced Maria Cecilia Lopez (32) to eight years in jail here on Thursday for smuggling 324.87 grams of methamphetamine to the island.

The Philippine national was also fined Rp2 billion or six months more in jail if she failed to pay the fine.

Chief judge Istiningsih Rahayu said when reading the verdict that she was proven illegally importing meth more than five grams against Article 113 of Law Number 35 of 2009 on Narcotics.

The sentence was two years lighter that the demand of the prosecutors of 10 years in jail and a Rp2 billion fine.

The judge said her action was against the Indonesian government's program to eradicate illegal narcotic drugs in the country and could  destroy the country's younger generation.

In favour of her was that she had behaved during the trial,  confessed and repented her action while she also had never been jailed before.

In the company of her lawyer and her interpreter she said she accepted the verdict.

Maria Cecilia Lopez was caught by the Ngurah Rai airport customs officials on April 15, 2011 who were suspicious of her actions upon arrival from Bangkok aboard a Thai Airways plane.

Upon further examinations including an USG scan it was found she had 41 capsules in her stomach, which were later found to contain meth.

Lopez said she had been ordered by someone in the Philippines to carry the drud to Jakarta. On the way to Bali she was given US$400 and promised US$2,000 later if she successfully took the drug to Jakarta.

Lopez also confessed she had smuggled drugs from Bangkok to African countries before by hiding them in a inner space in her baggage in January 2011.(*)