Paul Beales, 40 faces up to 20 years in an Indonesian prison after he was charged Monday with smuggling cocaine into the resort island of Bali

Briton faces 20 years over Bali cocaine bust

A British man faces up to 20 years in an Indonesian prison after he was charged Monday with smuggling cocaine into the resort island of Bali, prosecutors said.

Paul Beales, 40, was arrested in May and linked to British woman Lindsay June Sandiford, who was arrested separately when she arrived at the island's airport with nearly five kilos (11 pounds) of cocaine.

"The defendant, together with Julian Anthony Ponder and Lindsay June Sandiford, was involved in a conspiracy to sell and purchase cocaine," prosecutor Wayan Terima Darsana told the Denpasar district court.

"He could face a jail term up to 20 years," the prosecutor said. Custom officials said that the cocaine had a street value of more than 23 billion rupiah (S$2.93 million).

Indonesia enforces stiff penalties including life imprisonment and death for drug trafficking.

Two members of an Australian drug smuggling gang known as the "Bali Nine" who were arrested in 2005 are on death row, while seven others face lengthy jail terms.Another Australian, Schapelle Corby, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for smuggling 4.1 kilos of marijuana in 2005, recently had her term slashed by five years after a clemency appeal to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.