Police arrest Briton, Australian on trial for drugs
Police arrest Briton, Australian on trial for drugs
The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Medan
The Bali Police have arrested a total of 21 suspects, including a
British citizen, for drug-related offenses in a series of
operations throughout this month, while in the North Sumatra
capital of Medan, an Australian teacher went on trial for illegal
drug possession.
The Bali Police said on Monday they had confiscated 54 ecstasy
pills, 4.3 grams of hashish, 14 g of shabu-shabu (crystal
methamphetamine) and 1,048.3 g of dried marijuana.
"The arrests were the result of an intensive, extended
operation from Oct. 7 until Oct. 27. The operation involved
various methods available to us, including raids, interception,
surveillance and under-cover buying," Bali Police spokesperson
Sr. Comr. AS Reniban said.
The British citizen was identified as 46-year-old Nicholas
Simon Myring. His temporary residence in Bali was on Jl. Kunti,
in the growing tourism village of Seminyak in west Kuta. His
passport revealed he resided in the Netherlands.
The details of his arrest are sketchy. However, a related
police report mentioned that Myring was arrested at around 5 p.m.
on Oct. 22 in a street in Kerobokan village, some 15 kilometers
west of Denpasar. The arresting officers found 4.3 g of hashish
stashed inside a book -- an organizer with a black, hard cover --
the suspect was carrying.
"We are still questioning him, trying to establish where, how
and from whom did he acquire the illegal substance," Reniban
added.
The operation's biggest seize took place at midnight on Oct.
27 when they stopped a car driven by Triono Sugeng Widodo, a
suspected drug dealer.
The officers searched the vehicle and found 645.6 g of
marijuana and 35 ecstasy pills neatly hidden under the
passenger's seat. A further search at the suspect's house yielded
11.8 g of similar contraband stashed under a floor tile in
Widodo's room.
In Medan, prosecutors indicted on Monday an Australian, Graham
Clifford Payne, 21, for the illegal possession of 0.1 g of shabu-
shabu and 2,162 illegal pills.
For the 30-minute first court session on the case, presided
over by judge I Wayan Padang, the defendant, who had been in
Medan for two months at the time of his arrest, was accompanied
by two Indonesian lawyers and a translator.
In a five-page indictment, prosecutor Markos Simaremare found
the defendant had violated article 78 of Law 22/1967 on narcotics
and article 62 Law 5/1995 on psychotropic substances.
If found guilty, he could face the maximum penalty for illegal
narcotics possession of 10 years in jail and another five years
for the illegal possession of psychotropic substances. The trial
was adjourned until Nov. 22 when witnesses' statements will be
heard.
The two are the latest in a series of trials and arrests of
foreigners as the country steps up its fight against illegal
drugs.
In August, an Australian, John Julian Pyle, was sentenced to
five months in jail after being found guilty of possessing 1.8 g
of hashish. An Australian woman, Schapelle Corby, is currently
serving a 15-year jail term in Kerobokan prison for smuggling 4.2
kilograms of marijuana to Bali in a case that attracted huge
media attention in her home country.
In Denpasar, Australian model Michelle Leslie began her trial
last week for carrying ecstasy pills, while since mid-October
nine other Australians have been on trial for trying to smuggle
heroin from Bali to Australia.