A monk in Bhutan has become the first person jailed under the
country's draconian anti-smoking law after a court handed him a
three-year prison sentence for smuggling tobacco worth $2.50.
Sonam Tshering was arrested in January carrying 48 packets of
chewing tobacco worth 120 Bhutanese ngultrums which he said he had
bought in India before travelling back home to the Himalayan
kingdom.
Bhutan banned the sale of cigarettes in 2005 and tightened up
its law last year to combat smuggling, requiring consumers to
provide valid customs receipts for any tobacco products.
A judgement on Thursday from a district court in the capital
Thimphu, posted on the website of opposition lawmaker Tshering
Tobgay, said the monk had violated the Tobacco Control Act because
he had not paid duty for the tobacco.
"I should be punished, but the penalty could have been lighter,
as I wasnt aware about the act," a tearful 23-year-old Tshering
told the Kuensel newspaper.
"I didnt even conceal it while I was coming up from
Phuentsholing," he said, referring to a border town between Bhutan
and India. "If police wouldve checked at that point, I might not
have landed in jail today."
Smokers are restricted to 200 cigarettes or 150 grams of other
tobacco products a month that can be legally imported, with tariffs
of 100 percent from India or 200 percent from elsewhere, the
reports said.
Tshering, who was carrying 480 grams of tobacco, has 10 working
days to appeal to the High Court.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse," the ruling from the Thimphu
district court said.
The highly traditional Buddhist country of 700,000 people became
the first in the world to ban the sale of tobacco amid concern in
the government that young people were increasingly taking up the
habit.
A Facebook group, counting more than 200 people, has been set up
in support of Tshering called "Amend the Tobacco Control Act."
"I am sure that every smoker here has bought an illegal
cigarette," one member, Dipika Chhetri, posted. "I wonder if the
government knows exactly how many criminals there are now in
Bhutan."
Opposition MP Tobgay has also sought to raise awareness about
the tobacco act and has called a press conference for later
Friday.
He wrote on his website that a 24-year-old truck driver with a
wife and children called Lhab Tshering was also likely to be
imprisoned.
Bhutan, famed for its invention of Gross National Happiness to
measure progress and its citizens' well-being, is one of the most
remote and reclusive places on Earth, sandwiched between India and
China.
It had no roads or currency until the 1960s, allowed television
only in 1999 and continues to resist the temptation of allowing
mass tourism -- preferring instead to allow access to only small
organised groups of well-heeled visitors.
The country changed from an absolute monarchy to a
constitutional monarchy in 2008 when Bhutan adopted a constitution
and held its first parliamentary elections.