BERLIN: A German man has escaped the death penalty after being convicted of trying to smuggle cocaine into Bali.
Peter Hans Naumann’s sentence of 15 years’ jail comes as Indonesian authorities prepare to execute up to 10 foreign drug offenders including Bali Nine Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
Naumann, 48, was arrested by customs officials at the resort island’s airport in September after they noticed him acting suspiciously following his arrival on a flight from Bangkok.
An initial search turned up no drugs but further examinations in hospital found he had 11 capsules of cocaine in his stomach.
He confessed during his trial that he had been promised $US5000 ($A6560) to deliver the drugs.
Presiding judge Putu Gde Hariyadi told a court in the Balinese capital Denpasar Naumann had been “proven legally and convincingly guilty of importing narcotics”.
The judge said mitigating factors included that “the defendant regretted his action, was polite during the trial and had not been involved in a crime before”.
He handed him a 15-year jail term, and ordered him to pay a fine of one billion rupiah $US75,700 ($A99,370) or spend an additional three months in jail.
However, judges decided not hand him the toughest penalty in Indonesia for drug trafficking, the death sentence.
President Joko Widodo, who took office in October, has taken a hard line against the drugs trade, claiming that Indonesia is facing an “emergency” due to rising narcotics use, and vowing to show no clemency for traffickers on death row.
