As you know, our dear friend David Fox is in grave trouble. He was arrested in Bali on October 8 for possession of hashish and faces many years in jail. He doesn’t deserve this. Fox has used hashish regularly for two decades to help alleviate some of the symptoms of PTSD. He was formally diagnosed after a breakdown back in 1995, and he found that hashish helped him cope. He never did any harm to anyone else, and he was not being irresponsible, he was doing his best to deal with a debilitating and insidious condition that is notoriously difficult to treat.
Fox has an excellent legal team and he hopes that by proving to the judge that he is not a recreational user of drugs, but somebody who became a regular drug user because of the traumatic effects of reporting on war and disaster, he will get a relatively lenient sentence.
Regardless of the outcome, his legal fees are already mounting and along with a punitive fine are likely to prove astronomical. He cashed in his Reuters pension a few months ago with the aim of building a small retirement villa in Bali, but it is already clear that this nest egg and all his life savings and more will be swallowed up by legal fees.
Several of his friends and colleagues have already asked if they could make a contribution, so we are formally launching a ‘fighting fund” appeal so that when the opportunity avails itself, we have the resources to support the best possible outcome.
Please dig deep, but any amount big or small is welcome and the funds raised could make a difference in years served. Even if you can’t, Foxy remains humbled and grateful for the support he has received and thanks you from the bottom of his heart. Whatever is raised will only be used when all other resources have been exhausted and anything remaining will be returned where possible.
For the moment this will be a private appeal, and we will not be using a public crowdfunding platform. Publicity may not be helpful for the moment.
Please deposit funds directly into Fox’s bank or PayPal accounts, and send a notification to Fox [fox@gavafox.com] and Richard Simmonds [richard@icommbali.com] who is managing Fox’s accounts, so we have a record of your contribution.
Thank you for reading, and we would be grateful if you could forward to anyone who may wish to make a contribution.
With many thanks from
Andrew Cockburn, Rob Bradley and Chris Pedersen and much love from Fox