Indonesia deports Australian surfer who apologized for drunken rampage
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s authorities on Saturday deported an Australian surfer who apologized for attacking several people while drunk and naked in the deeply conservative Muslim province of Aceh.
Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23, from Queensland, was detained in late April on Simeulue Island, a surf resort, after police accused him of going on a drunken rampage that left a fisherman with serious injuries.
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“Of course I’m pretty emotional, so I’m going to feel bad about it,” Risby-Jones said while waiting for his flight to Melbourne.
He said the fisherman’s relatives forgave him and told him that he was a part of their family now. “I’m welcome to come back and even stay at their house whenever I want,” he said.
“So, that feeling of guilt is definitely much smaller that it was originally,” he said.
He was released from prison on Tuesday after he went through a restorative justice process, apologized for the attack and agreed to pay compensation to the fisherman. That allowed him to avoid going to court and facing a possible charge of assault that could have landed him up to five years in prison.
His lawyer, Idris Marbawi, said the two sides agreed that Risby-Jones would pay the fisherman’s family for hospital fees and a traditional peace ceremony. The total payment was 300 million rupiah ($20,000). The fisherman underwent surgery in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, for broken bones and an infection in his legs.
“Risby-Jones is the first foreigner to successfully resolve a case through restorative justice in Aceh province,” Marbawi said.