TABANAN, Bali — Two Iranian nationals await deportation after being transferred by police to immigration authorities following an alleged cash theft from a grocery shopkeeper in Tabanan, officials said.
The men, identified by their initials MB, 47, and HM, 54, were handed over by Tabanan Police to the Tabanan Immigration Office on Tuesday, Sept. 22, after police completed their handling of the case.
“Based on the examination, both were subjected to immigration administrative action,” Merry Yolanda, an intelligence and immigration enforcement official at the Tabanan Immigration Office, said Wednesday.
Immigration authorities imposed the measures under Article 75(1) of Indonesia’s Immigration Law, which allows action to be taken against foreign nationals considered to have engaged in activities that threaten or potentially disrupt security and public order.
The pair were subsequently transferred to the Denpasar Immigration Detention Center, where they are being held pending deportation.
Merry said no deportation date had yet been set as administrative arrangements were still being processed and return travel needed to be arranged.
The two men were previously arrested at a hotel in Kuta on Sunday night after police investigated an alleged theft at a grocery shop in Bajera Jero, Selemadeg, Tabanan.
Police said the incident occurred at around 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, when the pair visited a shop owned by local resident I Made Suwawa.
According to police, they bought Rp5,000 worth of sugar before one of the men asked the shopkeeper to exchange a Rp100,000 banknote.
As the shopkeeper showed him several banknotes, the man allegedly reached into the seller’s bag and handled some of the cash himself. The shopkeeper became suspicious and took the money back before giving the man two Rp50,000 notes as change.
After the pair left, the shopkeeper checked his cash and discovered that eight Rp100,000 banknotes were missing, totaling Rp800,000.
Police suspect the men used the request to exchange money as a distraction to gain access to the shopkeeper’s cash.
Investigators later traced the pair to Kuta, where they were arrested at the hotel where they were staying.
They remain in immigration detention while arrangements for their deportation to Iran are completed.
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