Thai get harsh sentences for drug smuggling in Cambodia

Local newspaper Koh Santepheap reported that Heder Martel Rojas, 23, Rodol Foniek Otero Farias, 27 and a Thai woman whose name was not supplied had been sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday.

A court official confirmed by telephone that Judge Chhay Kong, of Phnom Penh Municipal Court, had handed down the sentences and also ordered each person to pay around 12,000 dollars in fines.

Police arrested Rohas last October 6 at Phnom Penh International Airport and he later incriminated the other pair, who were arrested in the northern city of Siem Reap.

Rohas pleaded guilty and told police they were intending to take the drugs overland into Thailand, but the other two claimed they had been set up.

The court official said all three were appealing the sentences, which are some of the toughest handed down for drug smuggling in recent years.

//(Deutsche Presse-Agentur/DPA)