British man avoids death penalty after being caught with drugs in Bali
A court on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali sentenced a British man to 10 months in jail on Tuesday for drug offences after a charge that could carry the death penalty was dropped.
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Thomas Parker, from Cumbria in northwest England, was arrested on January 21 at a villa near Kuta beach, a popular tourist spot, after he allegedly collected a package containing drugs from a motorcycle taxi driver on a nearby street.
Police officers said Parker was 'acting suspiciously' while he collected the package, according to the court document. He allegedly discarded it in a panic and fled when police approached him. He was traced back to the villa where he was staying and arrested.
A lab test confirmed the package contained slightly over a kilogram (2.326 pounds) of MDMA, the main ingredient in Ecstasy, the document said.
During the police investigation, the 32-year-old electrician was able to prove that he did not order the package. It was sent by a drug dealer friend, identified only as Nicky, whom Parker had known for around two years and spoke to regularly through the Telegram messaging app.
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Parker was told someone would pick it up shortly from him, and he was not promised money or anything else by Nicky in return.
Police reduced the initial charge of drug trafficking, which carries a possible death sentence, to the less serious offence of hiding information from authorities after investigators determined that the package was not directly linked to him.
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