DENPASAR, DEWATA.NEWS – The Denpasar District Court has imposed a 20-year prison sentence on a Ukrainian national convicted of smuggling nearly two kilograms of cocaine through Bali’s main international airport, significantly exceeding the original 12-year sentence sought by prosecutors.
The ruling was delivered on Thursday (29 January) by a panel of judges chaired by Ni Kadek Kusuma Wardani. The judges stated that the prosecution’s demand was too lenient and did not provide a sufficient deterrent effect for a crime involving a large quantity of high-risk narcotics.
The defendant, 21-year-old Kateryna Vakarova, was found guilty of unlawfully possessing a Category I narcotic weighing almost two kilograms. The court ruled that the severity of the offense warranted the maximum prison sentence under applicable law.
Vakarova was convicted under Article 609 paragraph (2)(a) of Law No. 1/2023 on the Criminal Code, in conjunction with Law No. 1/2026 concerning sentencing adjustments, as outlined in the prosecution’s alternative indictment.
In addition to the 20-year prison term, the court also imposed a fine of IDR 1 billion, with a subsidiary sentence of 190 days in prison if the fine is not paid. The judges cited aggravating factors, including the defendant’s status as a foreign national who was expected to respect and comply with Indonesian law.
During the verdict, the panel emphasized that nearly two kilograms of narcotics posed a serious threat to society.
“This amount is not small. It has the potential to destroy many lives. Drug smuggling must carry consequences that create a real deterrent effect,” the presiding judge said.
Following the ruling, the defendant, after consulting with her legal counsel, stated that she would consider her legal options.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors had demanded a 12-year prison sentence and a fine of IDR 1 billion, with a subsidiary six-month imprisonment. The prosecution argued that the defendant had smuggled almost two kilograms of a Category I narcotic through Ngurah Rai International Airport in Tuban, Badung.
The defendant was arrested at the international arrivals terminal on Sunday, 3 August 2025, shortly after arriving on a Qatar Airways flight from Warsaw via Doha. The aircraft landed at around 01:00 WITA, after which customs officers flagged her luggage during an X-ray inspection.
Officers from the Bali National Narcotics Agency later conducted a search and found six packages containing a blue-colored substance identified as 4-CMC, also known as 4-chloromethcathinone or “blue sapphire,” a synthetic drug associated with hallucinations and paranoia. The total evidence weighed 2,120 grams gross, or 1,991.25 grams net.
During questioning, the defendant claimed she obtained the items after communicating with an unknown individual via the OLX application using her mobile phone. She stated that she did not know the owner of the drugs and denied placing the packages in her suitcase. She also told investigators that it was her first time carrying such items and that she had been promised a payment of around IDR 8 million.
This verdict follows an earlier court session in which the defendant submitted a plea for leniency in the same case.