DENPASAR, Indonesia: A British former war correspondent will be released from a Bali prison in a matter of months after being handed a short jail term Thursday for using hashish on the Indonesian resort island.
Ex-Reuters journalist David Fox, 55, was found guilty of drug use at a court in the Balinese capital Denpasar after being caught with a few grams of hash, and given a seven-month jail term.
His sentence will be reduced by time already served in detention since his arrest in October with an Australian businessman, meaning he should be released in May.
Fox, who said he used hashish to relieve stress caused by covering conflict, could have been jailed for several years for breaking Indonesia’s tough anti-drugs laws which include the death penalty for traffickers.
But prosecutors praised him for politeness and admitting wrongdoing during his trial. Fox admitted he became addicted to the drug to deal with post-traumatic stress from war reporting and vowed never to use it again.
He worked for Reuters for over 20 years and covered conflicts and natural disasters in countries including Bosnia, Rwanda, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. He left the agency in 2011.
After the verdict was handed down, Fox said he felt “relieved.”
“I’m very very grateful, I think the court recognized the circumstances of my peculiar case,” he told reporters.
Chief Judge Erwin Djong told the court that Fox was “legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing... the crime of unlawful use of narcotics” as he handed down the jail term.
Djong added the sentence would be reduced by the time that Fox had already served in detention.
It was lower than the one year recommended by prosecutors at an earlier hearing.
The Briton was detained on the resort island, where he had been living for several years, after the arrest of Australian Giuseppe Serafino, who runs a bar on Bali.
Authorities raided the house of Serafino, 49, after a tip-off from local residents that a foreigner living there had been using drugs.
Police found about 7 grams (quarter of an ounce) of hashish in the house and Serafino named Fox as someone who helped him buy the drugs.
Authorities then detained Fox and found 10 grams of hashish in the Briton’s pocket and at his house. Serafino is also on trial and will be sentenced next week.
Jakarta has sparked global outrage by hauling an increasing number of foreign drug convicts before the firing squad over the past two years.
Foreigners are regularly arrested for drugs offenses on Bali, which attracts millions of visitors to its palm-fringed beaches every year.
UK ex-war reporter jailed in Bali drugs case
UK ex-war reporter jailed in Bali drugs case
Uganda partially restores internet after president wins 7th term
- “The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report
KAMPALA: Ugandan authorities have partially restored internet services late after 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term to extend his rule into a fifth decade with a landslide victory rejected by
the opposition.
Users reported being able to reconnect to the internet and some internet service providers sent out a message to customers saying the regulator had ordered them to restore services excluding social media.
“We have restored internet so that businesses that rely on internet can resume work,” David Birungi, spokesperson for Airtel Uganda, one of the country’s biggest telecom companies said. He added that the state communications regulator had ordered that social media remain shut down.
The state-run Uganda Communications Commission said it had cut off internet to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks.” The opposition, however, criticized the move saying it was to cement control over the electoral process and guarantee a win for the incumbent.
The electoral body in the East African country on Saturday declared Museveni the winner of Thursday’s poll with 71.6 percent of the vote, while his rival pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine was credited with 24 percent
of the vote.
A joint report from an election observer team from the African Union and other regional blocs criticized the involvement of the military in the election and the authorities’ decision to cut
off internet.
“The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report.
In power since 1986 and currently Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state, Museveni’s latest win means he will have been in power for nearly half a century when his new term ends in 2031.
He is widely thought to be preparing his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to take over from him. Kainerugaba is currently head of the military and has expressed presidential ambitions.
Wine, who was taking on Museveni for a second time, has rejected the results of the latest vote and alleged mass fraud during the election.
Scattered opposition protests broke out late on Saturday after results were announced, according to a witness and police.
In Magere, a suburb in Kampala’s north where Wine lives, a group of youths burned tires and erected barricades in the road prompting police to respond with tear gas.
Police spokesperson Racheal Kawala said the protests had been quashed and that arrests were made but said the number of those detained would be released later.
Wine’s whereabouts were unknown early on Sunday after he said in a post on X he had escaped a raid by the military on his home. People close to him said he remained at an undisclosed location in Uganda. Wine was briefly held under house arrest following the previous election in 2021.
Wine has said hundreds of his supporters were detained during the months leading up to the vote and that others have been tortured.
Government officials have denied those allegations and say those who have been detained have violated the law and will be put through due process.
