A court in Puerto Plata has found a French woman, Liana Guillon, guilty of drug trafficking and sent her to eight years in jail.
She was arrested last April when trying to fly to Paris from Puerto Plata with 11 kilos of cocaine in her suitcase. She was in the country on honeymoon with her husband and their one-year old son, and pleaded guilty to the charge in December. Her lawyer, Maria Elena Gratereaux said that it was one of the lowest sentences considering the quantity of drugs she was carrying. The Public Prosecutor had asked for 20 years, and the defense was hoping for five. However, she and her client needed to discuss whether to appeal the length of the sentence.
In addition, there is an agreement between the Dominican Republic and France, established in 2009 and ratified a year later, which allows people to serve jail sentences in their own countries and Gratereaux is hoping that this will apply in Guillon’s case.
Guillon was arrested together with her husband, Christophe Guillon, but he was released in October last year due to lack of evidence that he was involved in or aware of the drug smuggling.
www.eldia.com.do/nacionales/2013/1/29/105523/Ocho-anos-de-prision-parafrancesaviajariaa-Paris-con-11-kilos-de