16-year term sought for drug suspect in Bali
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Prosecutors demanded on Wednesday that a 48-year-old former prisoner, Ishak Tayeb -- one of Bali's biggest drug dealers -- be sentenced to 16 years in jail and fined Rp 100 million.
Chief prosecutor Banjar Nahor told the Denpasar District Court that the defendant had been shown to have numerous kinds of illegal drugs in his possession.
Iskak had also been shown to have attempted to produce illegal drugs, particularly ecstasy pills, for subsequent sale, Banjar charged.
"His actions are prejudicial to the future of the nation's young people, and I would ask the honorable judges to sentence the defendant to a 16-year term of imprisonment," he told the court.
"Moreover, the court should impose a fine of Rp 100 million on him and order him to pay trial costs of Rp 5,000."
Ishak had once been arrested in 1996 with more than 20,000 ecstasy pills stashed in his bag. A court later sentenced him to only 14 months in jail.
Another prosecutor, Supartha Jaya, said on Wednesday that police had found various illegal drugs and substances in Ishak's house.
Among the confiscated drugs were 175 ecstasy pills, 353 MDMA pills, 878.2 grams of powder and crystal methamphetamines, 118 grams of hashish, 1.3 grams of dried cannabis, 3.3 grams of heroin, and 5.9 grams of Diasepam and Nitrasepam powder.
The police also discovered drug-related paraphernalia, and several small machines, reportedly used by the defendant to produce ecstasy pills.
Pieter Lopulalan and Naomi Esther Baku, lawyers for the defendant, appeared shocked by the prosecutors' demand. However, Ishak looked calm after the session.
"I am fine, fine," he simply told journalists as he was getting into the green prison van that was to carry him to his holding cell.
The trial, presided over by Ketut Sudarma, was adjourned until March 13 to hear pleas from the defendant's lawyers.
Under the present law, serious drug offenses carry the death penalty in Indonesia. The Tangerang District Court in Banten province has sentenced both Indonesians and foreigners convicted of possessing drugs to death on a number of occasions.
Ishak was arrested at dawn on June 9 last year at his home in the Seminyak area, some five kilometers north of Bali's prime tourist hub of Kuta.
One day later, the local police officially charged him as a suspect in the possession and production of illegal drugs.
"The arrest was really good news for us, because he had been the most-wanted criminal for years in Bali," a high-ranking narcotics detective said.
"We have been trying to capture him for many years, but he was too smart and too elusive. We believe that he is one of the four biggest drug dealers in Bali, the ones with extensive networks and important connections," he said.
It was also the first time that the police managed to find sufficient evidence to uncover a drug syndicate in Bali which was capable of producing drugs.
Meanwhile, on Monday the Denpasar Police apprehended a 35-year-old Caucasian man, Thomas Borsitzki, who is allegedly one of the top illicit drug suppliers in Indonesia.
They found some 13 grams of pure heroin stashed inside a black-striped brown bag in his rented bungalow in the Canggu area, some 15 kilometers west of Denpasar.
"We have not been able yet to identify his nationality, because the suspect claimed that his passport had been lost for almost two years," Bali Police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Eddy Kusumawijaya said on Tuesday.
He said the suspect was born in Austria on August 14, 1967, and had stayed for numerous extended periods in Bali.
Borsitzi had been on the local police watch-list since the 1990s, after the authorities began to suspect that he was closely connected with international drug-trafficking syndicates.