Death penalty sought for drug maker

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