A Japanese man in his early 40s was found guilty of marijuana possession, a court in Bali has ruled, and must now spend two years behind bars.
Forty-three-year-old Naoyuki Takeda was arrested on May 9 this year at his hotel in Kuta by the police, who confiscated 0.5 grams of marijuana from his possession. Takeda admitted that he bought the package from an unnamed dealer in Legian for IDR700,000 (US$44.7).
The Denpasar District Court yesterday found Takeda guilty and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment, along with a fine of IDR800 million (US$51,114) in lieu of an additional six months’ confinement.
The sentence was considerably lighter than the four-and-a-half years public prosecutors demanded for Takeda.
Takeda’s legal counsel has been given seven days to decide on an appeal.
To say that Indonesian law is tough on drug possession would be an understatement – one would be right to argue that it’s draconian. For example, three years ago, a Belarusian woman was sentenced to 8 months behind bars over a possession of just 0.1 gram of weed.
