[420 Girl]

An Australian will be released from a Bali jail today after serving four months for a drug offense, but will remain in immigration detention pending a decision on his deportation.

Former airline executive Barry Wilfred Hess, 50, has asked authorities to let him stay in Indonesia after serving his sentence for being a drug addict who failed to report his condition.

Lawyer Mohammad Hussein said Hess would be released today, and was anxious to know if he could remain in Bali, where he has made his home.

"Usually, convicted criminals are deported to their own country and blacklisted from entering Indonesia again. But we are still negotiating whether he can stay here," Hussein said.

Authorities have been asked to consider the fact that Hess has lived in Indonesia for many years, and has a local business and partner in Bali.

Hussein said immigration officials would take custody of Hess on his release from Bali's Kerobokan Prison, where he served time alongside members of the Bali Nine and marijuana trafficker Schapelle Corby.

Hess would then be taken to a holding cell near Bali airport to await a decision on his fate, which was expected within days.

Formerly of Melbourne but a Bali resident for the past 12 years, Hess was arrested in August after police discovered 14.4 grams of hashish and 2.7 grams of marijuana in his Kuta home.

He initially faced a maximum penalty of death by firing squad for a range of charges including drug trafficking.

But the Denpasar District Court threw out the more serious charges and instead found him guilty of being a drug addict who had not reported himself to authorities to undergo rehabilitation.

Hess, who has a furniture exporting business in Bali, was formerly general manager of the now collapsed Bali airline, Air Paradise, and was previously an executive with Ansett.

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