A three-judge panel in Denpasar, Bali, led by Justice Ni Kadek Kusuma Wardani, on Thursday, 29 January 2026, rejected a 12-year sentencing demand from a Public Prosecutor for a Ukrainian woman, Kateryna Vakarova, convicted of smuggling 2 kilograms of cocaine via Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport.
The original sentence demanded 12 years in prison was rejected by the Denpasar Court as being too lenient and unlikely to represent a sufficient deterrent effect. As a result, the panel of judges increased the sentence for the 21-year-old woman to 20 years behind bars.
As reported by BaliPost.com, Vakarova was found guilty of smuggling cocaine. In addition to the 20-year prison sentence, the Ukrainian was also ordered to pay a Rp. 1 billion fine.
In increasing the sentence, the judge said that 2 kilograms of cocaine could ruin the lives of many people in Indonesia and, for that reason, the maximum punishment should be imposed to act as a deterrent to both the woman and other possible lawbreakers.
Vakarova is now consulting with her lawyer on whether to appeal the 20-year sentence. There is a risk that an appeals court could increase the woman’s penalty to death before a firing squad,
Vakarova was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport on 03 August 2025 after disembarking a Qatar Airways flight from Warsaw and Doha carrying 2 kilograms of cocaine concealed in her luggage.
A thorough inspection of her luggage yielded four packets of cocaine (4-CMC/Blue Safir).
The woman told the court she had purchased the narcotics online using her handphone and was only acting as a courier against a promise of a cash payment of US$500.
The total stash of narcotics weighed 2,120 grams.
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