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Image: A light sentence meted out to the two men. Credit: Stock.

The Denpasar District Court sentenced two Australians detained on drug charges, David Dirk Johanes Van Iersel (38) and William Roy Astillero Cabangtog (36), to jail on Monday. They were sentenced by a board of judges led by Engeliky Handajani Dai, SH., MH., for possession of cocaine. The judges decided that both of the defendants in the high-profile case could be classified as users and the article of law imposed by the prosecutor matched with the defendants’ violations.

“We decided that the defendants were guilty according to Article 127 paragraph (1) of Indonesian Law No. 35 of 2009,” said the judge in the trial. The judges sentenced Cabangtog to 12 months and Van Iersel to nine months in jail. “We sentence the defendants to jail and the detention periods will be included in the sentences,” the judge continued.

The public prosecutor, Made Ayu Citra Maya Sari, SH., MH., stated that her side will consider the verdicts, while the defendants chose to accept them. Previously, the prosecutor demanded David, who worked as the manager of Canggu’s Lost City nightclub, to be sentenced to a year and two months in jail and William, who worked as hospitality consultant, to one year and six months.

During the trial it was revealed that the defendants were arrested on Friday, July 19, 2019 at around 2.30am, after police officers inspected Lost City nightclub, which is located on Jalan Batu Mejan, Echo Beach, Canggu. At that time, both men were in Van Iersel’s office.

When the police entered the room and searched on Van Iersel, they didn’t find any illegal items. However, before searching Cabangtog, he handed over a plastic clip which contained 1.12 grams cocaine to the police. He said it was the remains of the cocaine that was consumed by the two defendants and Cabangtog told the police that he had given the cocaine to Van Iersel. The police then searched the motorbike that was rented by Van Iersel and found electronic scales and two empty plastic clips.

When they were interrogated, David stated that he had consumed cocaine since he was 18 years old and William stated that he had done the same since 20 years old. Both claimed that they did it to ease and calm their feelings.