An Australian father faces life in prison in a Balinese prison after he was allegedly caught with methamphetamine.
Troy Smith was on vacation with his new wife, Tracy Ijusa, on April 30 when Indonesian police raided his room at the Champlung Mas hotel in Legian, in the south of the island.
They allegedly found 3.14g of methamphetamine hidden in a tube of Colgate toothpaste that was sent to Smith from Cairns and was labeled as containing private documents, photographs and lubricant.
Police allegedly found another 0.4g bought in Bali, along with a hookah and a lighter.
Outside court on Monday, one of Smith’s lawyers, Sienny Karmana, said her client allegedly tried to evade arrest “because he was afraid,” and police fired two warning shots into the air before he was taken into custody.
“The police said he tried to run away, but the police recovered him… they shot in the air, he was shocked and then he fell and then the police caught him,” he said.
Australian father Troy Smith (pictured with his wife, Tracy) has been charged with drug possession in Bali.
Indonesian police allege they found methamphetamine in Troy Smith’s four-star hotel room in Bali (pictured with his wife, right)
Smith faced a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, but his lawyers have revealed that he has been charged with two drug offenses: drug possession and drug trafficking, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a fine of $944,860. .
Ijusa attempted to visit Smith in custody on Monday, but was turned away by authorities. She declined to ask local reporters questions about whether she knew about her husband’s addiction.
He was expected to appear at a police news conference in Denpasar on Monday and claim that most of the methamphetamine was sent to him and that therefore he himself was not importing drugs into the country.
His attorneys alleged that the package was sent to him by a friend as a gift for helping him with the purchase of a car, but Smith did not know what the package contained.
Karmana told reporters that his client would not appear before the media on Monday because “mentally he was not that good.”
Smith will remain in custody at Bali Police Headquarters until his matter is mentioned in court.
Once police and prosecutors have their brief of evidence ready for court, Smith will likely be sent to Kerobokan Correctional Facility, a facility with a history of violence, riots and gangs.
Australian members of the Bali Nine attackers were sent to prison, along with Schapelle Corby, a Queensland woman who spent nine years there under allegations she tried to smuggle marijuana in her boogie board bag.
Pictured: Tracy Injus in Bali on Monday, who tried to visit her husband Troy Smith in police custody but was turned away.
Troy Smith married Tracy Ijusa in Kenya in December. He proposed to her in October.
Pictured: Police outside Kerobokan Correctional Facility, where Troy Smith could be sent.
Another of his lawyers, Ida Bagus Gumilang Galih Sakti, said Smith had battled drug addiction for four years and hoped to be sent to a rehabilitation center, rather than jail.
If he is granted the option of rehabilitation, he could avoid Kerobokan prison entirely.
He told the media that the package of methamphetamine was a “gift” from a friend, but that it had only made his client “suffer.”
“I found out from Troy… that it was a gift, because the sender knew I was a user,” Mr. Sakti said.
He said the package was related to the sale of a car, but his client didn’t know drugs would be sent to him.
Sakti said Smith was “very depressed and remorseful” about the situation.
“When the police catch people in another country, they get in a bad mood… and he is quite depressed at the moment,” Mr Sakti said.
Smith was originally from Port Lincoln, but appears to have moved to Cairns in the last two years.
He proposed to Ijusa in October last year and they married in January.
She was also arrested on April 30, but was released without charge and remained in Bali to support her husband.
It is understood Smith’s relatives flew to Bali last week.
INSIDE THE DREADED KEROBOKAN PRISON IN BALI
The prison was built to house 300 inmates but, in 2017, it had more than 1,400 inmates, men and women, of different nationalities.
Inmates have previously described it as a “hell” with frequent “murders, rapes, drug overdoses and beatings.”
Announcements and sirens over loudspeakers blare every day and inmates constantly compete for space in the crowded cells.
More than 90 percent of the prisoners are Indonesian and 78 percent were convicted on drug charges. Each prisoner is allocated 15,000 rupees ($1.08) per day.
In the photo: Inmates at the Kerobokan penitentiary in Bali.
