23 people jailed for tconsuming Ecstasy pills
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)