Indonesian authorities sentenced a French national to death on Monday for drug trafficking, Euronews reports
Felix Dorfin (pictured above right) was arrested carrying over 2 kilograms of ecstasy, crystal methamphetamine, and marijuana last September. The charged tested negative for drug use which led the courts to believe that it was his intent to move the drugs from France for distribution in holiday destination Lombok, Indonesia.
“The judge gave a heavier sentence because of the amount and kinds of drugs Dorfin was carrying” Dorfin’s lawyer told Reuters. The verdict came as a shock to Dorfin, not least due to the prosecutor’s call for a 20-year prison sentence.
Dorfin intends to appeal the verdict, his lawyer confirmed.
Indonesia enforces some of the harshest drug policies in the globe, such as executing convicted traffickers by firing squad. Moreover, since 2009, even parents of drug users can be imprisoned for failure to report their children to the police.
Indonesia’s zero-tolerance regime came under international scrutiny in 2015 when forces executed eight people including seven foreign nationals for drug related offences.