An Australian woman has been sentenced to a term in an Indonesian prison for drug possession.
Julie Ann Joseph, a truck driver of Port Hedland, Western Australia, was sentenced on Monday (March 3) to an unusually lenient eight months in prison on the holiday island of Lombok. She has already served five months on remand and is likely to be able to return home by the end of May.
Ms Joseph, 32, was arrested after she had a motorcycle accident and police became suspicious at the way she was protecting her handbag. On searching inside it they found 1.73 grams of crystal methamphetamines. Prosecutors accepted that the drugs were for personal use only, and requested a relatively short, one-year sentence. The maximum possible sentence was four years.
In court, Ms Joseph apologised to the Indonesian people, particularly the residents of Lombok, and said she needed to get home where her children were being teased about their mother’s imprisonment. She said after sentencing that she accepted the court’s ruling as fair.
