Court cross-examines Zarina in Ecstasy trial

JAKARTA (JP): The defendant in an Ecstasy case admitted yesterday that she did have keys to a safe containing 29,677 pills, contradicting her earlier claims.

But two different keys were needed to open the safe and she only had two copies of one of them.

Zarina Mirafsur told the court that before the police arrived on Aug. 7 last year she had tried to open the safe at her home in West Jakarta, because she was curious about its contents. She said she could not open it.

"I realized I didn't have the corresponding keys," she said.

Zarina, 24, was arrested and the safe confiscated in a police raid on her house.

Presiding judge Sumantri had asked Zarina about the three sets of keys to the safe. Two of the sets have been displayed in earlier hearings at the West Jakarta court.

Zarina has maintained that the safe was not hers but her friend Roy's. She said he and her sister Zamila each had a set of keys.

"I always give my sister copies of my keys, for the car too," she said.

Zarina said she became curious about the safe's contents when her boyfriend Edwin told her to get rid of it because he was jealous of another man's belongings being in her room.

The safe was opened at the Tangerang police precinct with keys from both Zarina's and Zamila's sets.

"I was surprised to see the pills in it," Zarina said.

The judge also asked her when she had last seen Roy. She said it was on August 7.

Unlike the previous sessions which heard witnesses, this hearing was relaxed.

Zarina said the safe was in her room because she was "very close" to Roy.

She said she met Roy, who has an Indonesian restaurant in the Netherlands, at a discotheque in January last year. Zarina said he sometimes stayed at her house in Taman Alfa Indah, Kebon Jeruk, when he visited Indonesia.

Zarina said she bought Roy the safe because he often had a lot of money.

But she said he was not her boyfriend -- he had too "feminine" a voice.

A judge asked why she did not suggest he put his money in a bank. She said she had, but he did not have an account in Jakarta.

She did not answer when the judge asked her why he did not just transfer the money to his account in the Netherlands.

She told the court that after she escaped her police escort the day after her arrest, she had looked for Roy, but did not find him.

Police were taking Zarina from the Tangerang precinct to Jakarta Police Headquarters when she escaped and fled to Houston, the United States. She was brought home with her lawyers on Nov. 17. Roy contacted her in the U.S., Zarina said.

"He said he was sorry for (my arrest) but he could not help, because he was hiding from the friend who gave him the pills," she said. Roy's whereabouts is still unknown. (13)