Bali drug arrest Britons to remain in custody

Lindsay Sandiford appeared at a news conference at an airport in Bali following her arrest in May

Four Britons suspected of smuggling cocaine worth £1.6m into the Indonesian island of Bali are to stay in custody for another month.

Indonesian police said they extended their detention for more questioning.

The Foreign Office previously confirmed Indonesian police were holding Rachel Dougall, Julian Ponder and Paul Beales.

They were detained following the arrest of Lindsay Sandiford, who was allegedly caught with 4.8kg of the drug on her arrival on the island.

The BBC's Karishma Vaswani, in Jakarta, says police are legally allowed to extend the detention period twice - the first time for a month, the second time for 40 days.

Ms Dougall and Mr Ponder are believed to be a couple from Brighton with a young daughter.

Mrs Sandiford's last known address was in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Firing squad

Following the arrests Indonesian customs officer Made Wijaya said the charge against them would carry the death penalty.

But customs officials are also reported to have said that Mrs Sandiford, 55, originally from Redcar, Teesside, may be spared the death sentence because she helped to catch three other members of the smuggling operation - who according to Indonesian law could face a firing squad.

Indonesia has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world.

The death penalty has been used in the past for drug traffickers but in recent years it has been applied infrequently.

More than 140 people are on death row in the country, a third of them foreigners.