The Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the life sentences of two Thai drug mules, but reduced one of their fines so that each now has to pay 60 million riel ($15,000).

According to presiding judge Oum Sarith, defendants Pinwjansod Utsatee, 22, and her accomplice Hollaus Nanthiya, 28, were indeed guilty of smuggling nearly 5 kilograms of methamphetamine into Cambodia from Ghana in August 2012.

Pinwjansod was arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport when officials found the drugs stuffed in a small bag in her suitcase, and Hollaus was arrested later at a guesthouse when police learned that she intended to receive the drugs.