18-year sentence sought for Nepalese

TANGERANG (JP): A prosecutor demanded on Thursday that the Tangerang District Court sentence two Nepalese to 18 years in jail each for allegedly smuggling 1.764 kilograms of heroin into the country last July.

Til Bahadur, 25, and Bir Bahadur, 33, were apprehended while allegedly attempting to smuggle 204 pills of heroin concealed in their stomachs through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on July 30, 1999.

The defendants' lawyers, John Kalangit and Hosen Aho, pleaded for a lighter sentence, charging the indictment as "incomplete and unfair".

Judge Tusani Djafri adjourned the hearing until next week, when he will issue the verdict.

For the first time, the Tangerang District Court had sentenced in January two Nepalese nationals to death for drug trafficking in July last year.

The two Nepalese, identified as Nar Bahadur Tamang, 59, and Bala Tamang, 30, went on trial for attempting to smuggle 554 grams of heroin into the country.

In a final hearing presided by Judge Satria Us Gumai, it was revealed that the two defendants had swallowed a total of 73 capsules of Immodium which were packed with heroin.

The two were charged under Narcotics Law No. 22/1997 which carries the death penalty or a maximum of life imprisonment and a fine of Rp 1 billion. (41/edt)