Drug prosecutors in Indonesia have requested a 16-year prison sentence for a Greek-Australian man, Michael Sacatides. He was accused of smuggling almost $400,000 worth of methamphetamine into Bali.
Michael Sacatides, 43, was arrested at Bali’s international airport on October 1st, 2010, when customs officers found 1.7kg of methamphetamine, known as ice, concealed in his luggage after he arrived on a flight from Thailand.
He had been facing the prospect of a possible death sentence, but prosecutors in the Denpasar District Court requested a sentence of 16 years.
The Greek-Australian was working as a kickboxing trainer in Sydney’s west, Australia. Since his arrest, he is still claiming his innocence, saying he had no idea the drugs – worth an estimated $A390,000 – were in the suitcase he was carrying when he arrived in Bali.
He told investigators at the time of his arrest that he had borrowed the luggage from an Indian associate, Akaleshi Tripathi, whom he knew from Bangkok, where he had been living and working for almost two years.
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