Driver-turn-drug dealer on trial

JAKARTA (JP): A prosecutor at a district court here indicted on Tuesday 44-year-old driver Syarifuddin Amin for trafficking 10 kilograms of first-grade marijuana.

"The defendant has violated article 82 of the 1997 Law on Psychotropic Substances," said prosecutor Samadi Budisyam at the Central Jakarta District Court.

The article carries the death penalty and a maximum fine of Rp 1 billion (US$125,000).

Samadi said the police raided Syarifuddin's house on Jl. Matraman Dalam, Central Jakarta, on Sept. 13 after receiving a tip-off from a local resident and confiscated six kilograms of marijuana wrapped in newspaper.

"The defendant admitted that he had earlier received a total of 10 kilograms of marijuana from Saiful, alias Iful," the prosecutor said.

Saiful is currently being tried at a separate hearing.

Dalil adjourned the hearing until next week to hear witness testimonies.

He said after the hearing that the court had never handed down a maximum sentence to a defendant in marijuana cases.

"Judges use their own judgments in issuing verdicts, but none of them have (so far) handed down a maximum sentence," he said.

"The maximum sentence ever handed down by a judge at the court was 14 years in jail," Dalil, who has been serving at the court for two years, said. (asa)