- CANBERRA, Australia: Australia’s prime minister has spoken by telephone with a 14-year-old Australian boy held in an Indonesian police cell for alleged drug possession and assured him she is working to bring him home.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s office said in a statement Monday that the Australian ambassador had handed his cell phone to the boy and his father so that Gillard could talk to them both on Sunday at police headquarters on the tourist island of Bali.
The statement said “the prime minister reassured them the government was doing everything it could.”
The boy, who cannot be identified under Indonesian law, has been held in a police cell since Oct. 4 when he allegedly bought a quarter of an ounce (7 grams) of marijuana. He faces up to six years imprisonment.