DENPASAR: Indonesian police have arrested an Australian, an American and a Malaysian on the holiday island of Bali for drugs offences, the latest foreigners to run afoul of some of the world’s strictest laws against narcotics. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was ”providing consular assistance to an Australian man detained in Bali” in response to emailed questions on the arrest. Possession of small amounts of drugs can incur lengthy jail sentences in Indonesia and larger amounts can result in a death sentence. President Joko Widodo has called for a ”merciless” crackdown on narcotics, and told law enforcers to shoot drug traffickers if they resisted arrest. That echoes a tough stand taken by Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte who has ordered a war against drugs in which several thousand people have been killed since mid-2016.

Source: The Star December 19, 2017 07:30 UTC