Four people arrested on drug charges in Bali face death penalty

At least four people are facing the death penalty for allegedly trafficking drugs into the resort island of Bali , defying the Indonesia’s notoriously strict anti-narcotic laws.

Bali police have arrested six people, including foreigners , on drug charges in the popular tourist destination since July, local authorities said.

Two Thai nationals, Rachanon Jongseeha, 33, and Woranawan Wongsuwan, 31, were arrested upon arrival at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport on 8 September for possession of methamphetamine and crystal MDMA, provincial anti-narcotics chief Rudy Ahmad Sudrajat said.

The pair were found carrying 1.9kg of methamphetamines mixed with the party drug MDMA in 108 sachets of a fruit-flavoured collagen drink, and 20 pills of MDMA, police said.

"The drugs would be handed over to two Indonesians who ordered it," Mr Sudrajat said.

Police later arrested the two Indonesians for allegedly ordering the drugs from Thailand. One of the suspects was arrested at the Bali airport while a courier was arrested later. All four could face execution by firing squad if charged and found guilty, Mr Sudrajat said.

Police also announced the July arrests of two European men on drug charges. They face strict punishment but not the death penalty.

A Latvian man, identified by the initials VS, was arrested at the Bali airport on 4 July for carrying 450.41 grams of hashish and 977.83 grams of cannabis in a suitcase. Police said the suspect had a tattoo indicating affiliation with organised crime groups in the former Soviet Union.

He faces a possible life sentence for cannabis smuggling.

A Swedish man identified by the initials SUE was detained on 31 July following a raid at a villa in the popular tourist spot of Gianyar. The officers recovered 201.28 grams of hashish, having been tipped off that this person had received a suspicious package by mail from Thailand.

The Swedish national faces 15 years in prison, Mr Sudrajat said.

Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws, and has more than 150 people on death row, mostly for drug trafficking offences. About a third of them are foreigners.

Eighteen people convicted of drug-related offences have been executed under current president Joko Widodo, who took office in 2014.

The anti-narcotics unit raided a suspected drug lab in May which led to the arrest of two Ukrainians, a Russian and an Indonesian. All the foreigners arrested face the death penalty for operating a hydroponic marijuana and mephedrone production lab.

An Australian man was sentenced to six months of medical rehabilitation in July for possessing methamphetamine. Troy Andrew Smith, from Port Lincoln in South Australia, was arrested on 30 April after police raided his hotel in Legian and seized 3.15 grams of crystal methamphetamine inside a toothpaste container from his room. Police found a further 0.4 grams of the drug, along with a bong and a lighter in his desk drawer.

Earlier in November 2019, a court in Bali sentenced two Thai nationals to 16-year prison terms for smuggling 1kg of methamphetamine into the country. The same year, a French citizen was sentenced to death on Lombok, an island next to Bali, for smuggling 3kg of MDMA before a higher court commuted his sentence to 19 years in prison.

Indonesia carried out its last executions in July 2016 when three Nigerians and an Indonesian convicted of drug offences were shot dead on the Nusa Kambangan prison island.