By Peter Vincent For Daily Mail Australia
08:02 10 Apr 2023, updated 08:41 10 Apr 2023
- Brazilian teen caught with cocaine at Bali airport
- Indonesian authorities want her to face a firing squad
Indonesian authorities have demanded a Brazilian teenager arrested for allegedly smuggling drugs into Bali face a firing squad in a stark warning for all tourists visiting the holiday island.
Brazilian Manuela Vitoria de Araujo Farias, 19, claims she was tricked by a gang after three kilograms of cocaine were allegedly found in her luggage when she arrived in January.
Ms Farias flew into Bali from Brazil via Qatar, but the drugs were not detected until she landed in Bali.
She has been in custody since then, charged with international drug trafficking.
Global press agency Newsflash reported that prosecutors demanded the maximum penalty – either death by firing squad or life in prison – last week.
Prosecutors allege she was working with a drug gang to smuggle the cocaine into Bali.
But lawyer, Davi Lira da Silva, said Ms Farias was only in Bali to visit temples where monks pray for the sick, as her mother recently suffered a stroke.
Her lawyers said she was going to seek Buddhist prayers for a cure.
Mr da Silva claimed the teen was tricked into co-operating after the gang who hired her told her of the temples to win her trust.
‘They said that she could pray in the temples to ask for her mother’s healing,’ he said.
Her lawyer also claimed her client sold lingerie and perfume for a living but was tricked by people she trusted.
They also claimed that the gang had promised to pay for surf lessons for the young woman once she arrived in the country.
If Ms Farias manages to escape the firing squad, she would still face life imprisonment in Indonesia.
Her bleak fate serves as a warning to tourists visiting the holiday paradise.
Thousands of Australians have flocked to Bali since the holiday island’s international borders reopened in March 2022 for the first time in two years.
Around 1.23 million Australians visited Bali in 2019 before international borders shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The death penalty exists for many crimes in Indonesia including drug smuggling, according to Australian government website Smart Traveller.
Drug possession and banned activities such as smoking in a public place and gambling also can result in jail time.
‘Penalties for drug offences include heavy fines, long prison sentences and the death penalty. Police target tourist destinations,’ the website states.
‘You may face heavy fines or jail for possessing even small amounts of drugs, including marijuana.’
Cannabis-based products such as cannabis oil, hemp, CBD, THC, hash and edibles are also banned in Indonesia, including for medicinal purposes.
‘A medical prescription does not make it legal. If you take such products to Indonesia or purchase or use them in Indonesia, you can be arrested and face imprisonment, fines, deportation or the death penalty,’ Smart Traveller warns.
‘Police target illegal drug use and possession across Indonesia. Police often target popular places and venues in Bali and Jakarta.’
Travellers are also warned check with a doctor or the Indonesian embassy before taking any prescription medications including sleeping pills into the country as many psychotropic medications and painkillers are banned and could be confiscated upon arrival.
‘Make sure you carry a prescription that covers the quantity of medication you’re taking with you,’ authorities warn.
Smoking is banned in many public areas in Bali and could lead to imprisonment and a fine.
Gambling is also illegal in Indonesia and could result in a stint behind bars.
Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in Indonesia in 2015 as the convicted ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine drug smugglers.
The nine Australians were arrested trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia on a flight out of Bali’s airport in 2005.
Of the remaining seven only one, Renae Lawrence, has been released from jail while another, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died in prison of cancer.
In October 2004, Australian Schapelle Corby became a household name when the then 27-year-old beauty student was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport with 4.2kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag, a crime she has always denied committing.
She returned to Australia in May, 2017.
