RI's NGO delegate arrested for drugs

The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

A thirty-year-old participant in the Indonesian People's Forum (IPF) meetings here, Revy Husodo, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon after security officers found some two grams of dried marijuana stashed inside his wallet.

"He was arrested jointly by UN and Indonesian police officers, and is currently under detention at Denpasar Police Headquarter," Denpasar Police chief of detectives Commissioner Budi Wasono said on Wednesday.

Initially, the security officers had only wanted to question Revy after he was seen walking suspiciously back and forth in the lobby of the Bali International Convention Center (BICC) Nusa Indah, the main venue for the fourth preparatory committee meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

However, when security officers found out that Revy was wearing two official conference IDs, one being an NGO ID and the other an official Indonesian delegate's ID, the officers became suspicious and asked him to undergo a body search.

The officers later found some two grams of dried marijuana inside his wallet.

"When we tried to escort him out of the BICC, he grabbed the wallet and instantly swallowed the marijuana. Fortunately, we did not lose all the evidence because some 0.01 grams of the marijuana were still left untouched at the bottom of the wallet," Budi Wasono said.

Separately, IPF's local coordinator Ngurah Karyadi, who had already been informed of the arrest, stressed that the IPF was not responsible for the personal behavior of its participants.

"This (the arrest) is a personal matter and not the responsibility of the IPF.

"Revy is only a participant in the IPF, and not an active member of the organizing committee. We have contacted a lawyer to provide him with any legal advice he may need," he said.

Yet, both the IPF and the police are at a loss to know how a person could obtain two different official IDs for the event, which has been touted as having tight security arrangements.