Indonesia parades foreigners arrested for drugs in Bali

DENPASAR: Indonesian police in Bali have arrested an American, two Spaniards and two Russians for selling cocaine on the island.

Police paraded the three men and two women at a press conference here yesterday.

Denpasar police chief Ruddi Setiawan said the first arrest was on May 20 when a 33-year-old Russian man was caught negotiating cocaine sales to foreign tourists by phone.

Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws – including death by firing squad for some drug traffickers and it has executed foreigners in the past.

It has not executed anyone since 2016, but a number of foreigners are still on death row including a cocaine-smuggling British grandmother and Serge Atlaoui, a Frenchman who has been on death row since 2007.

In 2015, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran – the accused ringleaders of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling gang – were executed by firing squad.

The case sparked diplomatic outrage and a call to abolish the death penalty.

The Bali Nine gang’s only female member was released from jail last year, while some others remain in prison.

Last year, eight Taiwanese drug smugglers were sentenced to death by an Indonesian court after being caught with around a tonne of crystal methamphetamine.

Two weeks ago, An Indonesian court had sentenced Frenchman Felix Dorfin to death for drug smuggling – a surprise verdict after prosecutors asked for a 20-year jail term.

Dorfin, 35, was arrested in September carrying a suitcase filled with about three kilograms of drugs, including ecstasy and amphetamines, at the airport in Lombok, a holiday island next to Bali where foreigners are routinely arrested on drugs charges. -- AP