BALI (Indonesia), October 3 - RAPSI. Prosecutors have requested an 11-year prison sentence and enormous fines as punishment for Russian yoga teacher Alexander Simonov, Jakarta Globe newspaper reports. Simonov was arrested at Bali's airport on April 24, for allegedly attempting to smuggle in drugs.

During the hearing of the Denpasar District Court, state prosecutor Ketut Sujaya said that Simonov had swallowed 88 capsules containing no less than 786 grams of methamphetamine in order to smuggle the drugs into the country. This violates article 113 of a 2009 law on narcotic substances, which stipulates imprisonment for up to 15 years.

Sujaya also accused the 30-year-old Simonov, who flew to Bali via Malaysia Airlines from Kuala-Lumpur, of being a courier for an international drug ring and demanded that the defendant pay 1 billion Indonesian rupiahs ($104,000) and that he be sentenced to an additional three months in prison.
Investigators reported that Simonov purchased drugs for $1,500 in India and was going to sell them in Bali for 549 million rupees ($57,000).

Around the same time as Simonov was arrested, customs officers also detained Sergei Chernykh, a 43-year-old designer from St. Petersburg, who was also trying to smuggle in drug capsules which he had swallowed.

Press attache for the Russian Embassy in Indonesia Dmitry Solodov earlier told RIA Novosti that Honorary Consul Nuku Kamka is in touch with the arrested Russians.

As in many other countries of Southeast Asia, Indonesias anti-drug laws are very strict. In May 2010, a Denpasar court sentenced a trade union activist from Australia to five months in prison; he was found to have 1.7 grams of marijuana when entering Indonesia.

An individual who attempts to smuggle in larger amounts of drugs can be sentenced to over ten years in prison or even the death penalty. In total, more than 140 individuals, including over 50 foreigners, are facing the death penalty in Indonesia on illegal drug trafficking charges.