British woman held for drugs in Indonesia: official

DENPASAR (AFP) - A British woman was arrested for allegedly smuggling cocaine on the Indonesian island of Bali, an official said Monday, and may face the death penalty under stiff drug laws.

Customs officers arrested the woman, identified as Lindsay June Sandiford, 56, May 19 with nearly five kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine after his arrival at Denpasar Airport on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok.

"We have arrested the suspect after we found 4.791 grams of cocaine in his suitcase. She has hidden in the lining of his suitcase," Denpasar airport customs chief I Made Wijaya told reporters.

"We conducted an analysis of X-ray baggage, found a suspicious substance in it and then it examined," he said.

The cocaine has a street value of more than 23 billion rupees (2.5 million) and Sandiford, who told officials she is a housewife, facing the death penalty for drug trafficking, said Wijaya .

Indonesia applies severe penalties, including life imprisonment or death for drug trafficking.

Two members of a drug trafficking gang known as the Australian "Bali Nine" who were arrested in 2005 are in death row, while seven others are facing long prison terms.

Another Australian, Schapelle Corby, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for smuggling 4.1 kilograms of marijuana in 2005, recently had his term reduced from five years after an appeal for clemency to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The 34 years is due to be published in September 2017.