Palestinian National Jailed in Bali for Possessing Various Narcotics
Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA) – The Denpasar District Court in Bali has sentenced Palestinian foreign national Mohammed FM Hamayda (40) to two years and six months’ imprisonment for possessing narcotics, including cannabis, methamphetamine, and ecstasy, in his boarding house room. The sentence was read by the panel of judges in the Denpasar District Court, Bali, on Thursday. In the verdict read aloud in open court, the judges found the defendant proven beyond reasonable doubt to have committed narcotics offences, namely unlawfully possessing, storing, possessing, or supplying non-plant category I narcotics and unlawfully possessing, storing, possessing, or supplying plant-form category I narcotics. This violated Article 609(1)(a) of Indonesian Law No. 1 of 2023 on the Penal Code, as amended and supplemented by Law No. 1 of 2026 on Penyesuaian Pidana, and Article 111(1) of Law No. 35 of 2009 on Narcotics, as applied again under Law No. 1 of 2026 on Penyesuaian Pidana.
“In judgment, the defendant is to be imprisoned for two years and six months, reduced for the time the defendant has spent in detention,” said the judge.
In addition to the custodial sentence, the defendant was fined Rp200 million. If the fine is not paid within one month, the defendant’s assets or income will be seized and auctioned by the Prosecution to settle the debt. “If the seizure and auction of the assets are insufficient, the sentence will be replaced with 80 days in prison,” the judge added.
The panel’s verdict is lower than the prosecution’s request for four years and six months’ imprisonment and a Rp1 billion fine. The panel considered mitigating factors: the defendant has no prior convictions, expressed remorse, and is unlikely to reoffend.
With the verdict, the defendant, through his legal counsel, stated that he was still considering it. The defence counsel was given one week by the panel to indicate whether to accept or pursue a legal appeal.
Earlier, in the indictment, prosecutors said the case’s revelation involved the involvement of a foreign national in illicit drug distribution, initiated from information received by officers of the Bali Provincial Narcotics Agency (BNNP Bali). It was alleged that there was drug abuse and illicit distribution at a boarding house in Gang Kesambi Indah No. 27, Kerobokan, North Kuta, Badung.
On Thursday, 31 July 2025, around 09:00 WITA, Bali BNNP officers arrived at the location to conduct checks. There they found a man who identified himself as Mohammed FM Hamayda matching the provided identity. The officers then searched his body, clothes, and found evidence including a black TECNO SPARK mobile phone in the pocket of his trousers. A subsequent search of the room uncovered various narcotics evidence: a plastic clip containing 0.27 g of crystal meth; a used white cigarette pack containing a plastic clip with six pink pills and a broken purple pill containing ecstasy weighing 1.55 g; three plastic clips containing dried cannabis weighing 10.96 g; a brown handbag containing a bundle of clips and a pack of vapour papers; a black digital scale; and a device used for inhaling meth. Hamayda was then taken to the Bali BNNP Office for further examination before being brought to the Denpasar District Court.