Phnom Penh - An Australian man has been convicted of attempting to smuggle methamphetamines out of Cambodia and jailed for six years, a judge said Wednesday. Judge Chan Madina of Phnom Penh Municipal Court said Simon Peter Conway, 50, pleaded guilty to having 40 grams of the drug known on the street as "ice" when detained at Phnom Penh International Airport in October.
Conway claimed the drug was for personal use as a painkiller for a leg injury, he said.
Conway is expected to appeal the severity of the sentence, which was handed down Tuesday.
Cambodian courts have dealt increasingly heavy sentences for drug smuggling in an effort to discourage people from seeing the country as an alternative route to neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand, which have cracked down hard on drugs in recent years.
