Sentence could be reduced for drug user

QUEENSLAND accountant Isaac Roberts has met his mother and his lawyers in Bali, where he remains locked up in a jail cell, accused of importing drugs to the holiday island.

Roberts was brought out of his jail cell yesterday and taken to a police office to see his mother, who has travelled to Bali to support him.

Roberts, 35, said he had nothing to say and had no reason to feel sorry.

It comes as police say he will most likely be treated in court as a drug user which would substantially reduce any potential sentence – including the death penalty – as users and addicts are treated with much more leniently than dealers and traffickers in Indonesia.

Bali police deputy director of narcotics, Senior Commissioner Sudjarwoko, told News Corporation that interrogations of Roberts, combined with medical tests, had concluded that Roberts was a drug user.

The former Toowoomba man, who later worked at accounting firms in Melbourne and Brisbane and who ran as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2009 by-election for a House of Representatives seat vacated by Peter Costello in Melbourne, was arrested in Bali on December 4.

During Tuesday’s press conference Roberts claimed that he was set up because he had been invited to Bali by an unnamed person who was working for Customs, who knew he would be carrying something in his luggage and hence the search.

But yesterday Cmr Sudjarwoko said Roberts had made no mention of this during police interrogations after his arrest.

After Tuesday’s press conference Roberts was taken to the police hospital for one hour to be checked after what his lawyer said was shock after the press conference.