On Thursday, the 5th of March, the Denpasar District Court in Bali sentenced a Palestinian national, identified as MH (40), to two years and six months in prison for storing narcotics in his boarding room.
In its verdict, the panel of judges found MH guilty of committing narcotics offences, namely the unauthorised possession, storage, control, or provision of Class I narcotics in non-plant form as well as Class I narcotics in plant form.
The acts were deemed to have violated Article 609 Paragraph (1) Letter a of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code, as amended and supplemented by Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2026 concerning Criminal Adjustments. In addition, they violated Article 111 Paragraph (1) of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics, as re-enacted by Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2026 concerning Criminal Adjustments.
“The defendant is sentenced to two years and six months’ imprisonment, minus the period of detention already served,” the judge stated.
In addition to the custodial sentence, MH was also ordered to pay a fine of Rp200 million. Should the fine not be paid within one month, the defendant’s assets or income will be confiscated and auctioned by the prosecutor to cover the amount.
“If the confiscation and auction of assets are insufficient, the penalty will be substituted with an additional 80 days’ imprisonment,” the judge added.
Previously, the public prosecutor’s indictment had stated that the drug trafficking case involving MH initially came to light following information received from members of the public by officers of the Bali Provincial National Narcotics Agency (Badan Narkotika Nasional Provinsi Bali or BNNP Bali). Last year, on the 31st of July and at approximately 9 AM Central Indonesian Time, the BNNP Bali officers visited a boarding house located at Gang Kesambi Indah No. 27, Kerobokan Village, North Kuta, Badung to conduct an investigation. At the site, they encountered MH who matched the description previously provided.
The officers then conducted a search and recovered a black mobile phone as evidence. They subsequently searched MH’s boarding room and discovered a plastic bag containing clear crystal methamphetamine weighing 0.27 grams, a white cigarette packet containing six pink tablets, one fragment of a purple tablet containing 1.55 grams of ecstasy, and three plastic bags containing 10.96 grams of dried plant material suspected to be cannabis.
Additional evidence included a brown handbag containing a bundle of plastic bags, a pack of vapouriser paper, a black digital scale, and a device used for smoking methamphetamine.