Bali Nine drug trafficker allegedly found with ice
Michael Czugaj, one of the Bali Nine drug traffickers, has been transferred to another Indonesian prison after he was allegedly found with the drug ice.
Czugaj, who is currently serving a life sentence after he was caught carrying heroin through Bali’s Denpasar Airport in 2005, is one of 60 prisoners moved out of Kerobokan prison.
He was allegedly found with less than one gram of ice, the Head of Bali Corrections Division Nyoman Putra Surya said.
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He said Czugaj was one of 63 prisoners moved, seven of whom were foreigners with six of those from Iran.
Nyoman alleged the Australian’s “addiction was strong” and that leftover ice was “often” found in his cell.
“He (Czugaj) said that he got it from a visitor … That’s why we need to take him out so that he would be far away from his network in Bali,” Nyoman told reporters in Bali.
It was alleged the Australian admitted to using narcotics while in the prison but never trafficked it.
“Every time we found (the drug), it was always only leftovers. We want to prove it directly,” Nyoman added.
Prisoner transfers are becoming increasingly common in Indonesia as the system battles an overcrowding problem.
In April last year Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, ringleaders of the Bali Nine, were executed by firing squad in Indonesia despite a lengthy and passionate appeal from the Australian government and public.
The executions put severe strain on Australian-Indonesian relations, with then prime minister Tony Abbott labelling them “cruel and unnecessary” and withdrawing the Australian ambassador from Jakarta.
Earlier this month, Indonesia’s Attorney-General HM Prasetyo indicated the country may resume death row executions at the end of the wet season when “the weather gets better” – a statement a spokesman later said it was “a joke”.