June 19, 2017
(AFP) - Four foreign prisoners have tunnelled out of jail on Indonesia's tourist island of Bali, including an Australian man who was going to be freed within months, police said Monday.
The escape is the latest in a spate of audacious prison breaks in country, where last week dozens of inmates swam out of a facility on another island during a flood.
An Australian, Bulgarian, Indian and Malaysian are missing from the Bali jail, police said, adding they are believed to have fled when Muslim prisoners were performing the dawn prayer.
"It seems that they have escaped through a 50 x 75cm (20 x 30 inch) hole at the prison's outer wall which have led to their escape," Bali police spokesman Hengky Widjaja told AFP.
Increased checks in the airport, port and bus terminals are being launched to apprehend the prisoners, who include Australian Shaun Edward Davidson.
The 33-year-old, who was serving a one-year jail term for immigration offences, fled the prison even though he was due to be released in under three months, police said.
He was with Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov Iliev, who was sentenced to seven years prison for money laundering in 2016, Indian Sayed Mohammed Said and Malaysian Tee Kok King, who were both serving jail terms over Indonesia's tough laws on drugs.
Jailbreaks are common in Indonesia where most prisons are overcrowded.
The escape in Bali comes just days after dozens of inmates swam through flood waters to escape an Indonesian jail in Jambi province after one of its walls collapsed. Most were later recaptured.
Last month, more than 440 inmates fled a jail in Pekanbaru City on the island of Sumatra after prison guards let them out of their cells to pray. Only about half were caught.
