Thitirat Charoensuk was sentenced to 14 years in prison

Thai woman was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday for trying to smuggle 500 grams of cocaine into the country early this year, media reports said. The West Java Banten's Tanggerang district court found Thitirat Charoensuk, 24, guilty for violating the country's tough anti-narcotic laws. In addition to handing down a 14-year jail sentence, the court also ordered the defendant to pay a fine of 60 million rupiah (5,330 dollars), chief judge Haryono said in the court ruling, the state-run Antara news agency reported. In previous court hearings, government prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Thitirat. Thitirat was arrested in late February with British national Michael Anthony Guevera, Antara said, adding that the cocaine was divided into three packages, wrapped in condoms and carried in her vagina. Indonesia defends 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 recently 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.