An Indonesian court has sentenced a Japanese teenager to six months in jail after he was caught with a small amount of marijuana on the resort island of Bali.
The 17-year-old, a student at an international high school on the island, was arrested in August after police found 2.61 grams of the drug in his pocket.
'The defendant has been found convincingly and legitimately guilty of abusing narcotics for his personal use,' Judge Gunawan Tri Budiono of Denpasar district court said as he handed out the jail term.
The teen's lawyer successfully argued that an initial one-year sentence sought by prosecutors was too harsh, given the boy's age.
The judge and counsel on both sides wore Indonesia's traditional Batik shirt during the hearing instead of court robes to make proceedings less intimidating for the minor.
Indonesia takes a hard line on drugs with trafficking punishable with life imprisonment or even execution.
Drug possession carries up to 12 years in jail, while use of even small amounts of narcotics can result in a four-year prison term.
Foreigners populate Bali's main jail, many having fallen foul of strict drug laws that are enforced on the party island.
