23 people jailed for tconsuming Ecstasy pills

JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta District Court jailed 23 people yesterday -- including 13 women -- after they were found guilty of consuming Ecstasy pills at a city discotheque.

During separate sessions, the defendants were sentenced to an average of two months and 20 days in prison.

The court had been told that police arrested the 23 partyers during a raid at Marimba Discotheque in Hotel Sentral on Jl. Pramuka, Central Jakarta, on Aug. 23.

The prosecution presented evidence from a forensic expert, Abdul Mun'im Idries, that proved there were traces of Ecstasy in the defendants' urine.

One defendant, Pramudiah Race S., 27, a private employee from Jl. Bandeng, Bekasi, burst into tears when presiding judge Abas Sumantri read his judgment.

Pramudiah, a mother, was unable to speak at first when the judge asked her whether she accepted the sentence.

Prosecutor Ace Alan Pasha said Pramudiah only needed to serve an additional three days in jail because she had been detained for two months and 17 days at Pondok Bambu Penitentiary since the raid.

Pramudiah had earlier told the court that someone put a pill in her orange juice and she had suffered a headache after drinking the juice.

She was charged under Article 60 (5) of Law No. 5/1997 on psychotropic drugs, which carries a maximum jail sentence of three months for drug users.

Ace had asked the court to sentence the defendant to four months in jail and fine her Rp 25,000 (US$7.5).

He said Pramudiah and her husband were apprehended by policewomen when the couple tried to leave the discotheque.

Police released her husband because he passed the urine test.

In another session, presiding judge Agus A.G. Dewata sentenced Suma Dahlia, 29, to two months and 17 days in jail and fined her Rp 12,500 for taking half an Ecstasy pill.

"Will you accept the sentence and go home, or would you like to make an appeal," Agus asked the defendant.

The defendant and prosecutor, Ida Ayu Ardani, accepted the sentence.

Relatives and friends of the defendants filled the courtroom and detention area.

A defendant standing in the detention area threw a glass of water at a photographer when he tried to take her picture.

The raid on Marimba Discotheque was one of several raids on nightspots in the city on the same night. A total of 47 people were arrested.

Before being taken to Jakarta Police Headquarters for urine tests, Mun'im checked the suspects' eyes to see whether the suspects were "tripping".

Criticism

The chairman of Indonesian Medical Doctors' Association, Azrul Azwar, criticized yesterday the doctor who assisted police during the crackdown.

Azrul, who did not name the doctor, said the doctor's involvement was unethical and violated his medical oath.

"The doctor conducted checks on people and disclosed the results publicly, which is against the doctors' ethics code and diminishes the doctor's credibility."

He said that police did not need a doctor to investigate a suspect.

A doctor's duty is only to conduct an examination if asked by a court or to appear as an expert witness at a trial, he said.

Mun'im, the forensic expert who worked closely with police during the crackdown on drug misuse and crimes, yesterday denied that his involvement violated the ethical code.

He said he assisted police as a forensic expert.

"A forensic expert is different to a medical doctor. The forensic expert can reveal the result of an examination. What I've done is examine evidence, the urine of suspects."

He said a forensic doctor did not examine a patient.

His involvement in the cases was based on Article 7, 120 and 133 of the Criminal Code procedure, he said. (jun)