Indonesia deports French drug smuggler after 18 years

JAKARTA (AFP) – A Frenchman who served 18 years in custody for smuggling drugs into Bali was deported Saturday in a case that sparked outrage in his native country over Indonesia's tough narcotics laws.

Police arrested Michael Blanc on the day after Christmas in 1999 at the tropical island's airport with 3.8 kilograms (8.4 pounds) of hashish hidden inside scuba diving canisters.

The now 45-year-old was originally given a life term – narrowly escaping the death sentence handed to some other foreign drug traffickers, including two members of the notorious Bali Nine who were executed in 2015.

Blanc's prison term was later cut to 20 years and then in 2014 he won

(AFP) – US President Donald Trump lashed out at his former lawyer on Saturday, saying Michael Cohen may have acted illegally in secretly taping their discussion about a payment to hush up an alleged affair with a Playboy model.

Trump’s early-morning tweet was his first direct reaction to a New York Times report Friday that the FBI had seized the recording during an April raid on Cohen’s office amid an investigation of possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

Cohen has not yet been arrested or charged with any crime. But his cooperation with the government could prove vital to prosecutors – a scenario that could be made more likely by an open split with Trump.

While Cohen was once quoted as something that few foreigners get in Indonesia – parole.

The former cook arrived at the airport in Jakarta escorted by Indonesian immigration officials, and accompanied by his mother, Helene Le Touzey, who gave up her life in France to spend nearly two decades in Indonesia campaigning for his release.

The two departed on a Turkish Airlines flight at 9 p.m. (1400 GMT). They are expected in Paris on Sunday around 11 a.m.

The life sentence handed out by an Indonesian court, which rejected Blanc's claim that he was carrying the drug-filled gear for a friend, was criticized in France as overly harsh.

Paris raised the issue at the highWASHINGTON saying he would “take a bullet” for the president, Trump’s tweet and the sharp reply from Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis could signal that the bond between the two has been damaged, if not broken.

“Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) – almost unheard of,” Trump tweeted Saturday.

“Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client – totally unheard of & perhaps illegal.

“The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!”

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal claims she had an affair with Trump after they met in 2006, shortly after Trump’s wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron. She told CNN previously that he tried to pay her for sex.

The Wall Street Journal said the est levels, with the then-prime minister Francois Fillon bringing it up during a visit to Indonesia in 2011.

In 2008, Blanc's sentence was cut to 20 years thanks in large part to his mother's efforts.

Le Touzey later helped secure her son's parole in 2014, despite the fact that Indonesian law does not usually allow conditional release of foreigners after serving just two-thirds of their sentence.

Blanc's three-year parole period ended in July 2017, after which he was required to finish one year of probation.

Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws.

More than 70 people, including 42 foreigners, are facing the firing squad for drug offences, according to the Coalition for the Abolition of Death Penalty in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). recorded September 2016 conversation between Trump and Cohen was about buying the rights to McDougal’s story, which she had sold a month earlier to The National Enquirer for $150,000.

The tabloid never published the story. The chairman of its parent company, American Media, is a friend of Trump.

Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s current personal attorney, confirmed to the Times that the Cohen tape existed, but said it showed the president had done nothing wrong. He called it “exculpatory” because it showed Trump had no advance knowledge of a possible payment. None in fact was made. But Davis tweeted on Saturday that Trump and Giuliani’s strategy in the matter was “flawed; just as is #Trump’s false #Twitter statement made against” Cohen.