DENPASAR: An Indonesian court has jailed a Russian designer for 11 years after he was caught trying to smuggle hundreds of capsules of hashish in his stomach into the resort island of Bali.
Sergei Chernykh, 43, was arrested in April as he arrived on a flight from Kuala Lumpur. He was found to have swallowed 359 capsules filled with 695 grams of the drug, a court in the Balinese capital of Denpasar heard Tuesday.
Judge Gunawan Tri Budiono also handed the Russian a fine of one billion rupiah.
Another Russian, Alexander Simonov, was arrested two days before Chernykh as he arrived in Bali from Kuala Lumpur attempting to smuggle 915 grams of hash also in capsules that he swallowed.
The Denpasar court jailed Simonov earlier this month to eight years and ordered him to pay a one-billion rupiah fine. Despite the similarities between the cases, officials have said that the men did not know each other.
Indonesia takes a hard line on drugs with smuggling punishable with life imprisonment or even execution.
Afp
