An Indonesian court in the resort island of Bali charged a British woman today with cocaine possession, an offense punishable by life imprisonment.
Rachel Dougall, 39, was arrested in May at her luxury villa for alleged involvement in a plot to smuggle 4.79 kilograms of cocaine, AFP reports.
Two other Britons facing multiple charges in the case could face the death penalty. But prosecutors only charged Dougall with possession of nearly fifty grams of cocaine.
“In a police raid at the defendant's villa, police found a cigarette package containing 48.94 grams of cocaine in her bag,'' one of the prosecutors, Putu Astawa, told Denpasar district court. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Astawa said that “no evidence'' was found that Dougall had ordered five kg of cocaine as mentioned earlier by British housewife Lindsay June Sandiford. Sandiford is one of the two Britons facing a possible death sentence if convicted, after being arrested in May at the island's airport.
The UK’s Daily Mail had reported earlier that Dougall and her partner Julian Ponder wned a plush Bali villa was built on 17,222sq ft of land bought in 2009 — the year after Mr Ponder's UK-based party-organising business was liquidated with huge debts. The luxurious property is worth at least US$300,000 on the local market — a small fortune in Indonesia, the paper said. It is located in the village of Desa Belalang in Tabanan, about an hour's drive from Bali's main tourist areas. The couple began living here with their daughter a few months ago. The couple are also believed to own a property in Cyprus.
In total, four Britons and an Indian were detained in May in connection with the alleged cocaine plot.
Source: Thestandard
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