A witness to the arrest of a 14-year-old NSW schoolboy in Bali says the boy was picked up in a sting by plain-clothes police intelligence officers who had been waiting for hours, apparently tipped off that he had allegedly bought drugs.
The witness, a shopkeeper at the Mirah Minimarket, said the boy was caught about 2pm on Tuesday with a friend. They had left a foot massage salon across the road on Jalan Padma, a busy street in the heart of the Kuta tourist district.
“It caused quite a commotion. A lot of people stopped and watched as they were taken away,” said the man, who asked not to be identified, pointing to the pavement in front of the shop.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/boy-14-picked-up-in-sting-in-bali-drug-arrest-witness-20111007-1lckv.html#ixzz1a4Mol0RD
Respecting sovereignty is of course important. But if our Foreign Ministry doesn’t stop a 14 year old Australian citizen from being put in Kerobokan, a prison notorious for the mixing of murderers and sex offenders with small time crims, then they are simply failing to protect their own citizens in the face of clear injustice. Considering this was over a very trivial amount of marijuana…some laws are just to inhumane to be respected internationally.
AND YES OF COURSE IT WASN’T A SMART THING TO DO; YES HE PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER BUT PUTTING A 14 YEAR OLD IN KEROBOKAN IS ENTIRELY UNJUSTIFIABLE.
