Two young men from western Sweden have been arrested for narcotic related offences in Bali, and risk ten years in prison.
The men were arrested at their hotel room in Kuta on April 24. Neighbours at the hotel had complained about the marijuana smell that came from the men’s room. The police found 16 marijuana joints in a computer bag, and the men have admitted to buying 20 joints from a stranger on the island. The men Kjell Avald Holst and Karl John Bronell are 25 and 26 years-old and come from Gothenburg and Falköping in western Sweden. They are now detained in Kuta, awaiting their trial.
“A date for the trial has not yet been set, but we have regular contact with the men via our consulate in Indonesia” said Elinor Lundmark, press officer at the Department of Foreign Affairs, to Göteborgs-Posten.
According to a Bali police spokesman, the two were arrested at 11:20 p.m. on Friday night, May 1, 2009, following reports of strange aromas emanating from one of the hotel’s guest rooms.After searching the room, police confiscated 5.5 grams of marijuana hidden in a laptop computer bag with the tourist admitting they had just personally consumed part of the drugs, purchased earlier in Lombok.The men told officials they had bought 20 marijuana cigarettes for Rp. 400,000 (US$36) on Gili island, near Lombok from a tour guide.
The two men, now facing prosecution under Indonesia’s tough anti-narcotics regulations, could each pay fines of Rp. 500 million (US$45,500) and 10 years imprisonment.
