Three Brits face one year in prison over Bali drug charges
DENPASAR, (Indonesia): Indonesian prosecutors said Tuesday (June 24) they were seeking one-year prison sentences for three British nationals accused of drug offences on the resort island of Bali, a major reprieve in a country with some of the world's toughest drug laws.
Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 38, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 39, were arrested on February 1 after being stopped at Bali's international airport with 17 packages of cocaine that weighed nearly a kilogram, according to public court records.
They appeared in court alongside Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, who was allegedly due to receive the packages and was arrested a few days later in February.
"(Demanding the court) to sentence the defendants to one year in prison and to keep them in detention," prosecutor Made Dipa Umbara told the district court in Bali's capital Denpasar.
Umbara said that while the defendants were accused of breaking the law, they behaved well in court, acknowledged their wrongdoings, and pledged not to repeat their mistakes.
The British Foreign Office said it was in touch with local authorities about the case.
"We are providing consular support to three British Nationals detained in Indonesia," a spokesperson told AFP.
The sentence call came as a surprise as Indonesia typically hands out severe punishments for drug smuggling, including the death penalty, and has previously executed foreigners for doing so.
However the country has upheld a moratorium on the death sentence since 2017.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's administration has moved in recent months to repatriate several high-profile foreign inmates, all sentenced for drug offences, back to their home countries.
Frenchman Serge Atlaoui returned to France in February after Jakarta and Paris agreed on a deal to repatriate him on "humanitarian grounds" because he was ill.
In December, Indonesia took Mary Jane Veloso off of death row and returned her to the Philippines.
It also sent the five remaining members of the "Bali Nine" drug ring, who were serving heavy prison sentences, back to Australia.
According to Indonesia's Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, 96 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, before Veloso's release. - AFP
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