Jakarta - An Indonesian woman was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for smuggling more than 3 kilograms of heroin into the country early this year. North Sumatra's Medan District Court founded Winanti Rosmanasari, 24, guilty of violating the country's tough anti-narcotics laws.
Chief Judge Ardy Djohan said Rosmanasari was guilty of trying to bring 3.3 kilograms of heroin into the country from Laos, the state-run Antara news agency reported.
In previous court hearings, government prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Rosmanasari.
She was apprehended on February 15 by customs authorities in North Sumatra's Belawan port as she arrived from Penang, Malaysia. Custom officers foiled the smuggling attempt when an X-ray machine showed suspicious contents in her baggage.
Indonesia defended the death penalty as a necessary deterrent in a country with a growing drug problem. In July, the country executed two Nigerians found guilty of heroin offences, the first drug offenders to be put to death in four years.
Indonesian authorities vowed to speed up the executions of nearly 70 other drug traffickers on death row despite international calls for the country to halt capital punishment.
Nearly half of those on death row are foreigners, including three Australians involved in the failed "Bali Nine" plot to smuggle more than 8 kilograms of heroin to Australia in 2005.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Monday that his government would make a plea of clemency to spare the lives of the three Australians.
