Death penalty sought for drug maker

TANGERANG: About 700 members of several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Tangerang staged a rally on Thursday in front of the Tangerang District Court to demand the death penalty for Ang Kiem Soei, an ecstasy manufacturer.

"We demand the court sentence to death Ang Kiem Soei, who produced a great deal of drugs in Tangerang," SMIT chairman Edi Sulaiman told the rally.

In anticipating possible violence during the rally, the police deployed hundreds of officers to secure the trial proceedings.

The police arrested a member of another NG0, BPPKB, for carrying a machete.

The court tried Ang Kiem Soei, 50, a Dutch citizen, who was born in Fak Fak, Irian Jaya, for producing ecstasy pills and other drug materials on a large scale at a house on Jl. KH. Hasyim Ashary and on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Tangerang, between September 1999 and March 2002.

He was arrested in room 1513 at Hotel Borobudur in Central Jakarta on Apr. 6 by three detectives from the National police Headquarters.

Prosecutor Martha P. Berliana charged the defendant with violating Article 59 of law No. 5/1997 on psychotropic substances and Article 55 of the Criminal Code. The articles carry the maximum penalty of death. --JP