Drug-accused Briton appears masked on TV in Bali
- Published
Zaid Thanoon (left) and Victor Ortegarocha are accused of attempting to smuggle cannabis into Bali
A British man accused of smuggling cannabis into Bali has appeared wearing a mask at a TV press conference.
Zaid Thanoon, 26, a photographer from Sheffield, was put in front of cameras with another man on Wednesday.
He was arrested on 12 July, suspected of carrying three-and-a-half grams of cannabis into Indonesia.
A second man who appeared, Victor Ortegarocha, from Chile, was allegedly caught with three grams of cannabis the following day.
Both men appeared before local media at the customs office near Ngurah Rai airport on Bali, where the case against them was heard.
Rebecca Henschke, the BBC's Indonesia editor, said according to local reports the men - who were masked to protect their identity - were transferred from the custody of regional police to the National Narcotics Agency Bali Province division.
They face charges under Indonesia's anti-narcotics law that carry a sentence of between five and 15 years.
The Foreign Office said it was assisting a British man following his arrest in Indonesia.
Bali is an island and province of Indonesia, which has some of the toughest drug laws in the world.
News agency AFP said sentences for smugglers who carry five or more grams include the death penalty.
The Foreign Office website also warns the Indonesian authorities have "a zero-tolerance policy on drugs" and those caught face long prison sentences or the death penalty.
The men were masked and handcuffed as they were led into the press conference
According to one media report, external, Mr Thanoon was arrested after he arrived from Thailand and has admitted being a recreational cannabis user.
His Instagram page showed he had previously been travelling in China, Mongolia and Hong Kong.
A man from the Netherlands was also arrested but was not brought before the cameras.
Responding to criticism in 2015 over sentences for those convicted of drug smuggling, Joko Widodo, Indonesia's president, said the country was facing a national drugs crisis and the punishment for traffickers must be severe.
He claimed that up to 18,000 people die in Indonesia every year because of drugs overdoses.