2 Dutchmen sentenced to life for smuggling drugs in their intestines

CAIRO – 18 October 2018: The Red Sea Criminal Court sentenced two Dutch citizens to life imprisonment on Oct. 17 for smuggling a kilo of MDMA drug into Hurghada.

The two foreigners, named Marvin and Kevin, were accused of drug smuggling and trafficking. The trial and investigations have been ongoing for a year.

In June 2013, five foreigners were sentenced to death for smuggling drugs, according to Reuters.

British citizen Charles Raymond Ferndale, 74, and three other citizens of the Seychelles were detained; however, the fifth defendant, a Pakistani, escaped during the arrest and was sentenced in absentia.

The convicted men were arrested in 2011 with three tons of hashish in their possession on board a ship off Egypt’s eastern coast, according to the court official. The British Foreign Office said it was “extremely concerned” with the sentence.

The court also fined the defendants a total of LE 94 million ($13.46 million).

Additional reporting by Reuters