Court cross-examines Zarina in Ecstasy trial

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)