13 on death row for drug crimes
By Multa Fidrus
JAKARTA (JP): In the past 18 months, the Tangerang District Court has surprisingly handed down death sentences to 13 defendants in drugs offenses.
Another suspect is facing a life sentence, and will likely soon receive capital punishment as well.
Most of them were arrested at Soekarno-Hatta airport as they attempted to smuggle drugs into the country from Pakistan, India and Thailand.
Three of those on death row are Indonesians: Deni Setiawan Maharwan, 28, Rani Andriani, 25 and Meirika Franola, 31. The others are five Nepalese, three Nigerians, one Zimbabwean and one Angolan. The one facing a life sentence is a Malawian.
The amount of the drugs found on the defendants varied, from 554 grams of heroin to 3.8 kilograms of heroin.
The reaction of the defendants also varied.
"I will kill you all, I am innocent," Samuel Iwu Chekwu Okeye, 30, yelled after the court presented the verdict last July.
The Nigerian was found guilty of smuggling 3.8 kilograms of heroin from Madras, India, on Jan. 9, 2000.
Prosecutor M. Adam had sought a life sentence for the defendant.
As a matter of fact, there was only one defendant who had earlier faced a prosecutor asking for a death sentence. For the others, prosecutors had sought either a 15-year-jail term, or a life sentence.
In the most recent cases, prosecutors requested a life sentence for two Nigerians, Okwudili Ayotanze, 31, and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa, 33, a Zimbabwean, Ozias Sibanda, 33, and Thomas Daniel, a 28-year-old Angolan.
Okwudili smuggled into the country 1,150 grams of heroin from Pakistan on Jan. 20, while Hansen smuggled 600 grams of heroin, also from Pakistan, on Jan 30.
Also in January, Indra was arrested for smuggling 2,364 grams of heroin from Thailand, while Ozias was found smuggling 900 grams of heroin from Pakistan.
On Aug. 13 this year, the court meted out capital sentences to the four foreigners.
"This is the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life," Ozias told The Jakarta Post after he heard the verdict.
"I was simply hoping to earn US$3,000 to feed my wife and my children, I dared to swallow 54 capsules containing 850 grams of heroin. Instead of obtaining money, I face death," he said behind the bars at the court building.
He said he could not sleep most nights, since prosecutors had repeatedly told him that he would likely be sentenced to death, even though the prosecutor himself had "only" sought a life sentence.
"Please, send my apology to my wife and children and to all Indonesians," he said, with his eyes close to tears.
The Tangerang District Court chief, Haogoaro Harefa, told the Post that the harsh sentences are being imposed in order to curb drug cases.
He said that none of the judges had received threats or been intimidated so far in connection with the verdicts.
Award
"Instead we received numerous telephone calls and letters stating support and even an award from an NGO," Harefa said.
The House of Representative Commission II on legal affairs also praised the verdicts.
"We were surprised upon learning that the court had sentenced to death a dozen drug smugglers. We hope other courts will follow such brave decisions," Hamdan Zulvan, who led eight other Commission members, told the Post during a visit to the court early this month.
Unfortunately, he added, only one percent of drug traffickers are reached by the law.
Chief of the Tangerang prosecutor's office Poerwosudiro stated that prosecutors had asked for the death sentence for only one defendant from 14 major drug cases handled by the office in the past 18 months.
"But as prosecutors, we are ready to execute the verdicts in case the convicts do not file further legal submissions. To execute the verdicts, of course, we have to await the instruction from the Attorney General's Office," he told the Post.
Meanwhile, human right lawyers Todung Mulya Lubis expressed skepticism that capital sentences would curb the number of drugs cases in the country.
Amid concern about drug abuse that had claimed many victims in the country, Todung said that although it was in order for judges to mete out the maximum punishment, he disagreed with the death penalty since it was against human rights principles.
He also regretted that such stern punishment had not reached real major drug traffickers.
"Those given the death penalty were only the couriers, not the real drug bosses.
"Is such punishment fair? The problem is that we have never seen a serious attempt or successful operation carried out against drug trafficking," he told the Post.
He added that major drugs dealers had mastered much more sophisticated methods and information technology in trafficking so that it was impossible to expect law enforcers to be able to eradicate drug syndicates unless the government instituted total reform in every law enforcement institution.