A court in Indonesia on Monday sentenced Frenchman Felix Dorfin for drug trafficking. Prosecutors had requested 20 years' imprisonment.

"After finding Felix Dorfin legally and convincingly guilty of importing narcotics ... [he] is sentenced to the death penalty," presiding judge Isnurul Syamsul Arif told the court on Lombok Island.

The 35-year-old man from Bethune in northern France was arrested at the end of September at the airport on Lombok — a tourist island near Bali. He had arrived from Singapore with, according to the authorities, nearly four kilograms of cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines hidden in a double-bottomed suitcase.

French fugitive

Dorfin had escaped from police detention in January and went on the run for 11 days before being recaptured in a forest on Lombok Island. A female police officer was arrested for allegedly helping him escape in exchange for money. It was not clear if the jailbreak played any role in Monday's stiffer-than-expected sentence.

The death sentence came as a shock to Dorfin and his lawyer, Deny Nur, as prosecutors had only requested 20 years imprisonment. Nur said he would appeal against the death sentence. He described Dorfin as a "victim" who did not know the exact contents of what he was carrying.

Indonesia has not executed anyone since 2016, but a number of foreigners are still on death row including Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and Lindsay Sandiford, a cocaine-smuggling British grandmother, who have been on death row since 2007 and 2013 respectively.

Read more: Opinion: Indonesia executions are a mockery of justice 

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