He was doing okay convincing everyone he's out of his depth and being a complete wimp (balaclava ! ) to prove it. His parents are obviously out of their depth as well but no need to be so public about it at this stage or put the Indonesian judges in the position they now find themselves in.
Now channel nine have won a bidding war on airing his side of the story, $200,000-00. That piece of news is going to affect his sentence, what a completely dumb time to announce such a windfall.
Everything was playing into Indonesia's interests up to this point, the spotlight back on their anti-drugs policies, warning all tourists and the schoolies. Even the initial 'sting' aspect was turned around into Indonesia's favour.
Making special arrangements for his family and his trial even showed a very compassionate side to the whole system.
That has just been turned on it's head imho, the judges will not stand to be shown to be complicant in any good fortune for the boy or the family. The sentence may have already been decided and the story fee may well have been necessary to cover the fine. You don't go through any Indonesian system for free and this has been a complicated case process so far.
I doubt channel nine will be airing his side any time soon, perhaps that is what they calculated by announcing the story fee just before sentencing. why should they care about him anyway, stories cost money so it may as well be as big as it can be.
Lets see how they wriggle out of any suggestion they may have been party to the sentence.
IMHO there will be some custodial sentence and a large fine attached and as much of that 200,000 will flow into Indonesia as possible.
Two things you can count on, the publicity machine in both countries has not milked this story dry yet. Indonesia's judiciary will not lose any face on it at all or the chance to benefit either.
