American prisoner on the run after cutting through bars of his cell and escaping Bali’s Kerobokan jail
Indonesian prisons are often overcrowded, partly because a war on drugs led by the government of President Joko Widodo has led to a surge in the number of people locked up
Indonesian police are hunting for a US citizen who escaped on Monday from an overcrowded prison on the holiday island of Bali by cutting through steel bars in a ceiling, the jail’s second breakout of foreign inmates this year.
The Kerobokan prison, about 10km from the main tourist beaches in the Kuta area, often holds foreigners facing drug-related charges.
Cristian Beasley, who was a suspect in crimes related to narcotics but had not been sentenced, escaped at 4.10am, said Badung police chief Yudith Satria Hananta.
“It is thought that the prisoner escaped … by cutting through the steel bars above the ceiling,” he said in a statement, without giving details of how Beasley escaped without being detected.
Beasley, 32, from California, is believed to have then used a rope to climb down a wall before getting over a perimeter wall in an area being refurbished.
Police had questioned witnesses and guards and were hunting for Beasley, Hananta said.