Indonesia releases Aus drug teen
2011-12-04 07:42
Denpasar - Indonesia on Sunday released a 14-year-old Australian boy convicted of drug possession on the resort island of Bali after two months in detention.
A high school student from a coastal area north of Sydney, the teen has been the focus of intense negotiations involving Canberra's Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and other Australian officials lobbying for his release.
The boy admitted to carrying 6.9 grams of marijuana when he was arrested on October 4 in the tourist area of Kuta, where he was on holiday with his parents.
A district court on November 25 handed the teenager a two-month jail sentence for marijuana possession, deducting the eight weeks he had already spent in detention.
The boy had been held at an immigration detention centre in Jimbaran but made a brief stop at Kerobokan prison on Sunday to get his fingerprints taken and paperwork finalised before he was handed to immigration authorities at Denpasar airport for deportation.
He would return home after he had been processed by immigration officials and will be banned for six months from entering Indonesia, said his lawyer.
Several Australians have been arrested for drug possession on Bali in recent years, including two traffickers on death row and six serving life sentences.
