British woman jailed after slapping worker at Bali airport
The 42-year-old claims a viral video of her ranting at an official and hitting him was doctored by "criminal" Indonesia.
Wednesday 6 February 2019 16:36, UK
A British woman has been sentenced to six months in prison for slapping an immigration official in Indonesia.
Auj-e Taqaddas had blamed the officer after she missed her flight - and was captured on video supposedly swearing and hitting the victim at Bali's international airport in July 2018.
The 42-year-old was found guilty of violence against an officer who was carrying out his legal duty.
The footage, which went viral, appeared to show Taqaddas ranting at the officer and saying she would have to pay a fine for overstaying her visa and missing her flight.
She was asked to pay 300,000 rupiah (£16.60) per day she had overstayed her visa, which ran out in February, and would total £3,500.
Taqaddas then slapped his face and tried to grab her passport from him while continuing to scream swearwords at him.
She has appealed her six-month jail sentence - and during the trial, which began in December, she pleaded not guilty and claimed the video had been doctored.
After sentencing, she said the court was corrupt and claimed to have been tortured by police three times, including on Wednesday.
"This is a sham court who was only listening to the dirty prosecutor who did not bring me to the court for six months," she said.
As she was escorted by two officials from the court, she shouted: "Indonesia is a criminal country. Indonesian law is corrupt. Indonesian judges are corrupt.
"No lawyer was provided. Indonesian immigration is corrupt."
Prosecutors had been seeking a 12-month jail term.
Taqaddas was taken to the courthouse by guards on Wednesday after missing several earlier court dates, authorities said.
At the end of January she disappeared from her hotel room hours before she was due in court and authorities could not find her, although she was on a no-fly list so could not escape Bali by plane.