Several people arrested in Bali on drugs charges that could carry death penalty
Several foreign nationals – including an Australian, an Indian and an American – have been arrested on the tourist island of Bali on suspicion of possessing drugs, charges that could carry the death penalty.
The move comes after three British nationals accused of smuggling nearly a kilogram of cocaine into Indonesia were charged on Tuesday in a court on Bali.
Customs officers at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport arrested an Indian national with the initials HV, who was carrying a duffel bag, in the customs and excise inspection area on May 29.
The officers found narcotic-related items in his belongings, authorities said.
Following up on the interrogation of HV, later that day officers from the National Narcotics Agency of Bali Province arrested an Australian man with the initials PR, who has been visiting Bali since 1988.
PR asked HV to bring the duffel bag from Los Angeles to Bali, said I Made Sinar Subawa, an official from the narcotics agency, at a news conference.
During a search at a house where he stayed, officers found drugs in the form of hashish, a cannabis concentrate product, that belonged to PR and had been purchased over the Telegram messaging app.
The hashish was shipped from Los Angeles and Philippines before finally being received in Bali, Mr Subawa said. Officers seized 191 grams of hashish along with some candies consisting of tetrahydrocannabinol, and 488 grams of marijuana.
Both PR and HV are now suspected of dealing in narcotics, based on the evidence that was found with them, Mr Subawa said.
'PR is suspected of violating Indonesia's Narcotics Law which carries the death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for a minimum of four years and a maximum of 12 years,' said Mr Subawa.
Along with HV and PR, the agency also arrested WM, an American, on May 23 while he was collecting a package from a post office in Bali.
An officer opened the package carried by WM and found seven pieces of silver packaging containing a total of 99 orange amphetamine pills and secured one white Apple iPhone.
The agency, at a news conference in the city of Denpasar on Thursday, presented the evidence, including marijuana and hashish, seized from the suspects.
All suspects will undergo legal proceedings in Indonesia, including trial and sentencing.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.
The south-east Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers can face severe penalties, including the possibility of execution by firing squad.
About 530 people, including 96 foreigners, are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, latest figures from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections show.
Indonesia's last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Bleeding schoolboy asked for napkins after daylight knife attack left him with head wound
Police were called to Duke Street in Liverpool city centre at around 4.20pm today A teenager burst into an Indian restaurant "begging for napkins" after being slashed across the head in a brutal daylight knife attack. Merseyside Police raced to Duke Street at around 4.20pm on Wednesday, August 13, following reports a boy had been attacked with a bladed weapon. Emergency services rushed to the scene and the victim, thought to be 15 years old, was rushed to hospital with a minor head laceration. This comes as 13 children have been injured in a freak funfair derailment. Police confirmed the injured teenager is in a stable condition. According to initial reports, the suspect, described as around 17 or 18 years old, fled the scene on an electric pedal bike. READ MORE: Teen died after police rush to her flat, but could not be saved due to 'frustrating' delay A cordon has been established on a stretch of Colquitt Street and a small section of Duke Street outside the Indian Tiffin Room restaurant. When the Liverpool Echo arrived at the scene, a trail of blood and a bloodied tissue could be seen on the steps outside the restaurant. A bike was also inside the cordon. A member of staff at the restaurant, who did not wish to be named, described the moment the victim ran into the restaurant "asking for napkins" following the assault. He said: "He came running in asking for some napkins. He had blood coming out his ear, he was bleeding really badly. We just gave him the napkins and four or five people passing by called the ambulance. "It happened on Colquitt Street but the guy came running this way looking for help." The Indian Tiffin Room restaurant remained open to customers. Merseyside Police slam 'reckless' attack Chief Inspector Phil Thompson said: "This was a shocking incident and an investigation is ongoing to find the person responsible. "There would have been plenty of people in the area at the time of the incident, so please get in touch if you saw what happened or have any information." The Chief Inspector also condemned the use of weapons, saying: "The use of bladed weapons is extremely reckless and will not be tolerated anywhere in Merseyside. "I would urge people to educate themselves and speak to their children and family members about the dangers of carrying these sorts of weapons on our streets." He reassured residents that measures were being taken to ensure their safety, adding: "A cordon remains in place at the scene and patrols have been stepped up in the area to provide reassurance to those who live, work and visit our city centre."
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
Deception by stealth: the scammer's long game
We all know that life is full of people who try to con us, often starting with a voice on the phone. 'I'm speaking from the fraud department of your bank.' 'I'm your local BT engineer.' No, you're not from either my bank or BT. In all likelihood you are speaking from a scam farm somewhere in south-east Asia. This book, however, deals with the serious con artists, the ones who infiltrate your life over a period of time, using psychological skills, imagination and often charm until they have finessed you into a position where you willingly hand them a large sum of money, often your life savings. Then whoosh! – and neither the scammer nor the money is ever seen again. It happened to the author of this book Johnathan Walton, a successful Los Angeles television producer, who was conned out of almost $100,000 by a beautiful, charismatic woman who, over four years, he had grown to think of as his best friend. But where most victims of such frauds remain silent out of embarrassment, humiliation or even guilt, Walton went public, writing a blog about his experience. Stories from others who had been similarly victimised immediately flooded in and soon he realised that in all of them there were common factors. Anatomy of a Con Artist, a compilation of them, is written in a conversational style and from an American perspective. Chapters about Walton's own experience are interspersed with those of others – each illustrating at least one and usually more of his 14 danger signals For Red Flag No. 3 (Too Kind, Too Quickly) there is the case of Ricky, a young professional American football star earning millions, who needed to furnish his new apartment. While he was searching out stuff in a designer store, a striking, expensively dressed older woman who radiated sophistication and class materialised beside him. They struck up a conversation and when he told her why he was in the store she offered to help him – which Ricky eagerly accepted. Soon 'Peggy' was in a quasi-maternal role with the young athlete, showering him and his friends with gifts, love and support, and even hosting his wedding. But she was playing the long game. When Ricky went through a bad patch, becoming depressed and vulnerable, Peggy, now his trusted friend, seized the chance to whisper: 'If you had let me manage you, none of this would have happened.' After a year of such conversations, in 2007 Ricky signed over power of attorney to her, giving her total control of all his finances. For six years she seemed to be managing his wealth well – so much so that several fellow athletic stars entrusted the management of their own money to her. By the time they realised what was going on, she had siphoned off millions. A theme emphasised throughout is that, in Walton's words 'con artists don't outsmart you, they out feel you'. That is, it is through working on your emotions – affection, greed, loneliness, love – that they embroil you in their schemes. Building up your trust in them is essential, so that when it comes to the moment of 'the kill', you are the one to offer the money. 'They don't ask, they get you to offer,' says Walton. And of course money handed over voluntarily is more difficult to recover. So what are these all-important red flags? First, says Walton, remember that taken singly they may mean nothing; but the more of them there are, the more you must be on your guard. First on his list is the unsolicited offer of help, often from a stranger. By itself this might just be a kind deed; but for the con artist it could be a way into your life. And if your new friend pours out confidences before the relationship is well established, this could be another sign. Confidences invite confidences and the scammer sees this as a way of building trust between you – vital if the scam is to work. Two other red flags often found when a con artist is trying to lure you into an investment scam are scarcity and what Walton calls 'Beak Wetting'. This latter means perhaps the quick repayment of money loaned to the con artist, or the arrival of a generous dividend on a share scheme in which you have been persuaded to make a small investment. Fortified by the knowledge you can now trust this person/scheme, you hand over a lot more money – only for it to disappear for good. Scarcity is what it sounds like: if you don't buy this discounted new car or piece of jewellery immediately, the opportunity will have gone. Another warning sign is the constant use of digital technology. If someone is always showing emails or texts to back up whatever story they are telling, remember that these addresses and texts can be faked. The diplomas hanging on the wall may have been photoshopped to appear genuine and – worst of all with AI – the voice of a loved one or business associate can be copied. Walton, who now devotes his life to helping such victims, and to bringing fraudsters to justice in cooperation with the police, concludes his book with much sensible advice on what to do if you are scammed.
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
Who is Jimmy Lai? 'Prisoner of conscience' who has endured 1,600 days behind bars
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been in a high-security prison for more than 1,600 days. The 77-year-old was arrested over his role in pro-democracy protests in 2019 and has since been charged with various offences, including collusion with foreign forces, as well as sedition under colonial-era laws. His trial for alleged national security offences has faced lengthy delays, but is due to restart in Hong Kong on Thursday. Here is everything you need to know about the "world's most famous prisoner of conscience" and his trial, as it draws ever closer to a long-awaited conclusion. Who is Jimmy Lai? Lai was born in mainland China but fled to Hong Kong at the age of 12, after stowing away on a fishing boat. Here, he began working as a child labourer in a garment factory. He went on to build a fortune with the fashion empire Giordano and, after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when thousands of people protested for political reforms in Beijing, he became a democracy advocate and turned his hand to newspapers. Ahead of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China, he started the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily in an attempt to maintain freedom of speech. The paper was staunchly pro-democratic and did not shy away from criticising authorities in Beijing. Around the same time, in 1994, he became a full British citizen. He has never held a Chinese or Hong Kong passport, but is seen as a Chinese citizen by Hong Kong authorities. Why is he in jail? It was his pro-democratic beliefs that led to Lai becoming a key figure in the 2019 protests in Hong Kong, spurred by Beijing's tightening squeeze on wide-ranging freedoms. Lai's Apple Daily newspaper backed the protesters, criticising the government reforms. Lai and his sons were arrested in August 2020 after police raided the offices of the Apple Daily publisher, Next Digital. He was granted bail, but this was overturned in December of the same year, when Lai was charged with fraud. He was charged under the very national security laws, put in place in 2020, that he had protested. The charges include collusion with foreign forces, as well as conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications. Lai has been in solitary confinement for most of his imprisonment. During this time, he has lost a significant amount of weight and his son, Sebastien Lai, has consistently raised concerns for his father's declining health. His legal team has claimed he has been denied independent medical care for diabetes, is only allowed out of his cell for 50 minutes a day and, as a devout Catholic, has been denied the Eucharist. However, this week the South China Morning Post has reported a Hong Kong government spokesman saying that Lai had received appropriate treatment and welfare in prison. What has happened during his trial so far? After years of delay, Lai's national security trial started in December 2023. Prosecutors allege that Lai conspired with senior executives at Apple Daily to publish 161 seditious articles intended to incite hatred toward the central or Hong Kong governments. They labelled him a "radical political figure" and accused him of asking the US and other foreign countries to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and mainland China. The charges he faces under the territory's national security law could see him handed a life sentence. But Lai has always denied the charges against him. Nearly a year after the trial started, in November 2024, Lai took to the stand to testify. During his 52 days on the stand he faced questions about his editorial control over Apple Daily, links to activists in Hong Kong, the UK and US - and about alleged meetings with US politicians. Closing arguments in the trial were due to start on 28 July, but were delayed until 14 August. The next hearing is due to last around eight days. How is the British government involved? As he is a British citizen, the UK government expressed concern when Lai was first charged under the national security law in 2020. Subsequent British governments, including the current Labour one, have said Lai's imprisonment is a breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration - the 1984 agreement which set out the conditions of the transfer of Hong Kong from the UK to China. Three months after winning the general election, Sir Keir Starmer said securing Lai's release was a "priority" for his government and said his government would "continue" to raise the case with China. Most recently, during a January trip to China, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she raised the question over Lai's imprisonment with every minister she met. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he has also pressed Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Lai's detention during previous visits. In March, Lai's son, Sebastien, delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street asking for a meeting with Sir Keir to get his father released immediately. He said he was worried his father might die in prison and the case is a "litmus test" for the government to see if it will stand up to China for a British citizen who is in jail "for peaceful campaigning and journalism".
