East Timor arrests 2 foreigners who fled from Bali prison

DILI, East Timor — Authorities in East Timor arrested two foreign inmates who escaped from a prison in neighbouring Indonesia’s resort island of Bali and plan to return them, police said.

Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov Iliev, 43, and Indian Sayed Mohammed Said, 31, were among four foreign inmates who escaped Monday from the Kerobokan penitentiary in Bali provincial capital, Denpasar, through a 50-by-70-centimetre (20-by-28-inch) hole found under the walls that connects to a 15-meter-long (49-foot-long) water tunnel heading toward a main street.

The two men were recaptured by East Timor maritime police on Thursday near a port in the capital city of Dili, said East Timor police chief Julio da Costa Hornay.

Hornay said that Iliev, who is serving a seven-year sentence for money laundering and another offence, and Said, who is serving 14 years for drug offences, told authorities they had reached Dili on Wednesday by boat from Indonesia’s Alor Island and stayed at a hotel before police arrested them. Police found $7,000 in cash in their hotel room.