Four suspected drug smugglers were convicted yesterday and each sentenced to 22 years in prison for attempting to smuggle half a kilogram of methamphetamine from Stung Treng province to the border town of Poipet.

Two 30-year-old Cambodians, Sok Pisal and Hang Vuthy, and two Vietnamese nationals, Chhith Honglam, 26, and Chuong Dafong, 30, were arrested and charged in October under the Kingdom’s drug-trafficking laws.

Presiding judge Chuon Soreasey said at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday that the men maintained the right to appeal the sentence.

“The court decided to convict them to 22 years in prison and fined them 50 million riels each (about $12,500) under allegations of drug trafficking. They have the right to appeal to the court of appeal if they don’t accept this court’s decision,” Chuon Soreasey said.

The four convicted men’s lawyers could not be reached for comment yesterday; however, at the hearing on October 9, they confessed to committing the crime and made requests for reduced sentences.

Pisal admitted to buying the drugs from an unidentified Laotian woman in Stung Treng for $15,000 and said he had intended to sell them to a contact in Poipet.

He added that he would have make a profit of $5,000 from the sale.