Aussie given 18 years for drug smuggling

Michael Sacatides. Photo / AP

Australian man Michael Sacatides has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty of smuggling 1.7kg of methamphetamine into Bali.

The panel of judges presiding over the case in the Denpasar District Court on Monday found the 43-year-old guilty, while also increasing the sentence by two years compared to a request entered by prosecutors two weeks ago.

He had initially been facing the possibility of a death sentence for smuggling $522,000 worth of methamphetamine, also known as ice, into Bali from Thailand.

Sacatides was arrested at Bali's international airport on October 1 last year when customs officers noticed the drugs concealed in a hidden compartment in the suitcase he was carrying when he arrived on a flight from Bangkok.

The kickboxing trainer from Sydney's west has always maintained his innocence, telling investigators at the time of his arrest that he had borrowed the luggage from a man known as Akaleshi Tripathi, whom he knew from Bangkok, where he had been living and working for almost two years.

Tripathi, alias Peter, has never been found.

- AAP