Briton Paul Beales jailed four years in Bali for hashish possession
Denpasar District Court sentenced British national Paul Beales to four years in prison for possessing hashish, clearing him of drug trafficking. The sentence, reported on 20 December 2012, followed his arrest in a May 2012 sting linked to a cocaine smuggling case.
Denpasar District Court sentenced British national Paul Beales, 40, to four years in prison for possessing hashish.[1][2][3]The sentence was reported on 20 December 2012, days after it was handed down earlier that week.[1][2]Beales had been charged with possession of drugs, which carries a twelve-year sentence under Indonesia’s strict narcotics law.[1]
The AFP account put the amount at 3.6 grams of hashish found at his house and said the court cleared him of the more serious charge of drug trafficking.[3]Beales was arrested at the end of May 2012 in a police sting mounted after fellow Briton Lindsay Sandiford was caught with cocaine at Bali’s airport.[2][3]
In the same proceedings, Rachel Dougall was sentenced to twelve months in prison for failing to report a crime, with the court noting she was a mother and had cooperated with investigators.[1][2][3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The opened reports give no separate sitting date for the sentence, only that it was handed down earlier in the week of 20 December, so the report uses 20 December, the publication date.
The amount is given as 3.6 grams of hashish in the AFP account and as 3.1 grams of cannabis in the Capital FM account; the report uses the AFP figure.
The Arga Makmur District Court in Bengkulu sentenced M. Santri and Kiki Juliansyah to 10 months each on 29 October 2026 for using cannabis, with three months of rehabilitation. The court used a restorative-justice procedure under Indonesia's 2025 criminal procedure code, with the narcotics agency as the victim party; Kiki was arrested with 2.37 grams of cannabis.
An Indonesian court in Tangerang sentenced American basketball player Jarred Shaw to 26 months in prison for possessing 132 cannabis gummies imported from Thailand. The trafficking charge, which can carry the death penalty in Indonesia, was dropped in favour of the lesser possession charge.
The Sanggau district court sentenced civil servant Fidelis Arie Sudewarto to eight months in prison for growing marijuana to treat his wife Yeni Riawati's syringomyelia. The judges accepted he was neither dealer nor user, but ruled he had no permit; his wife died a month after his arrest.
Between 2009 and 2012, 37,923 people were imprisoned for using cannabis, according to figures cited by the Transnational Institute, even though the 2009 narcotics law and a Supreme Court circular were meant to send users to rehabilitation.