Obama's Screen Mother Held for Drug Possession in Indonesia

A South African actress who played Barack Obama's mother in an Indonesian movie about the U.S. president's early life has been arrested and charged with drug possession, Jakarta police said on Wednesday. South African Cara Lachelle, 27, an actress and model, played Ann Dunham, Obama's late mother, in a movie last year called "Obama Anak Menteng" (Little Obama).

Dunham, an anthropologist, moved to Indonesia with six-year-old Obama in the late 1960s to join her second husband, an Indonesian named Lolo Soetoro. Obama is wildly popular in Indonesia and wowed locals during a visit in November during which he fondly recalled his youth in the capital, peppering his speeches with Indonesian words and phrases.

Jakarta police spokesman Baharudin Djafar said Lachelle was found with over a gram of crystal methamphetamine, or ice, and under Indonesian law faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail.

"We captured her in a Jakarta apartment after we arrested four Indonesians carrying guns who used to deal drugs in the area," Baharudin Djafar, Jakarta police spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.

Indonesia, along with other Southeast Asian countries, has tough anti-narcotics laws and serious offences are punishable by death.

[Source : Kompas]