JAKARTA: A British woman has appeared in an Indonesian court charged with trafficking around 1.5kg of crystal methamphetamine, an offence punishable by death, prosecutors said yesterday.
Andrea Waldeck, 43, was arrested in late April at a hotel in the city of Surabaya in East Java province, according to her indictment.
She had arrived a day earlier at the city’s airport from China and allegedly managed to get past security with the drugs concealed in four plastic packages inside her underwear, the indictment said.
Two members of a drugs gang had been en route to the hotel to pick up the narcotics.
On the other hand, the police knew about the plan and managed to get there first and arrest Waldeck, it said.
“The defendant could face the death penalty,” prosecutor Deddy Agus Oktavianto said. Prosecutors did not estimate the value of the drugs.
The trial started on Tuesday at Surabaya district court and resumes next week.
Her case comes after British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death in January after she was caught trying to bring $2.4m worth of cocaine into Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
Prosecutors did not estimate the value of the drugs.
AFP
