Drug suspect Zarina tells her story from behind bars

TANGERANG (JP): From Mawar (Rose) cell block number eight at the women's prison in Tangerang, west of Jakarta, drug suspect Zarina Mirafsur complained that it's tough to change people's minds about her.

"Nobody believes me. Nobody listens," she said.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post at the prison last week, Zarina, who gained notoriety after escaping to the United States from Tangerang Police custody a few days after her arrest in 1996 for storing some 30,000 ecstasy pills, related her version of her recent arrest.

The 27-year-old single woman spoke in detail about her arrest on Nov. 11, starting from several hours before she arrived at the scene of the arrest and the unpleasantness of the police sending her to the Tangerang prison in a police truck on Nov. 24.

Zarina, who is also known as Zarima and acted in several TV drama serials, began by talking about her boyfriend Yeye and her presence at the man's apartment in a hotel-apartment complex in West Jakarta.

"Yeye needed drugs to live. He always looked so sad and spiritless. I gave him money, but I also did my best to get him off drugs that he's been using for four years."

Zarina has claimed she was trying to help Yeye overcome his drug addiction.

She said she never dreamed that her trip from Bandung to Jakarta on Nov. 10 would end in a nightmare the next day.

"When I was nearing Jakarta, I started getting calls from Yeye on my cell phone, telling me to come to Hotel M (on Jl. Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta)," Zarina said.

"He said he had put up to Rp 8 million (US$1,140) he had borrowed from other people on judi bola (gambling) using my name, and lost... and that many of the people were now threatening his life to get back their money.

"I then decided to head for the hotel."

Upon her midnight arrival at the hotel, Zarina was escorted to Yeye's room number 1512 by the hotel's night manager, Agus, and at least two security guards, she said.

Agus initially informed her that the room was paid for Yeye's credit card.

She found Yeye was not in the room.

"The bed looked unmade, and the room was untidy," she said.

"I just dropped my bag and cosmetics case on the room's floor."

A few minutes later, the manager came and told her that Yeye's credit card was not valid.

"So, I paid $100 as a deposit, and waited in the room."

Asleep

Knowing that Yeye's mobile phone was switched off, she waited, finally falling asleep at 2 a.m.

"I got up at about 4 a.m., and he was still not there. I picked up my handbag, didn't think of anything else, got out and got the manager to call a cab," she said.

"I told the cab driver to head for my mother's (nearby) home. On the way there, my mobile phone rang. It was Yeye. He demanded that I come back to the hotel.

"I then went back to the hotel to settle the matter with him since he couldn't use my name for gambling. Under the company of the night manager and hotel security guards, I rang the doorbell of Yeye's room, and he opened it," Zarina said.

"We started screaming at each other in the hallway. He called me names and all. I think that was the time when the (chief of the narcotics unit of the Jakarta Police detectives) Maj. Gusti heard us."

Zarina said Gusti and several of his men were raiding the next-door room, 1511.

The police officers later said the raid was focused on a Taiwan national who was planning to build a shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) factory in the country. The man was staying in room 706 and he was apprehended by the police.

Zarina explained that she became acquainted with Gusti earlier in the year.

"At the time, a drug bust was made where big-time dealer Budiman was caught taking drugs in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta. Budiman told Gusti that he was Yeye's friend and that Yeye was my friend. Gusti got hold of me, to help him get Yeye," she said.

"Back to the hallway mess, I got fed up standing there and screaming. So, I entered the hotel room, and screamed. I went to use the bathroom, got out and screamed again.

"At that point, the doorbell rang. When I opened the door, it was Maj. Gusti. We were shocked to see each other. He entered the room, saw Yeye and asked who he was. I introduced Gusti to Yeye. Yeye immediately became paranoid.

"Gusti then examined the room, when he suddenly picked up a packet lying on the table. He asked, 'What is this? Whose is this?' Yeye immediately said that it (a packet of 0.3 grams of shabu shabu) belonged to him."

'Happy Five'

Gusti walked around the room and found four Happy Five (tranquilizer) tablets. Gusti asked Yeye to show him his wallet, which Yeye did. Gusti found another Happy Five in it.

"Gusti then told me that I'd better come with him to the police. It was nearly 6 a.m. on Nov. 11 then," she said.

Asked why she went with Gusti without an arrest warrant, Zarina said she had no choice.

She was upset when she received the warrant for her arrest the following day. She said the police did not allow her family and lawyers to meet her.

"By that time, the unsigned police report stated that I was the one who owned the drugs, not Yeye. Yeye also became consumed by paranoia. He didn't know anything anymore."

She said Gusti also tried to force her to tell the media that the raid on Nov. 10 was focused on getting her, and that he had opened the lock to Yeye's hotel room with a master key.

On the third day in police detention, she said she was awakened at about 3 a.m. and forced to sign a police report.

Police detectives and representatives from the women's prison finally decided on Nov. 24 to send Zarina back to the prison, where she served half of the four-year term of the 1996 drug case.

Zarina insisted that the decision to send her back to the jail was unlawful, claiming that was why she refused to sign documents on her transfer from police detention to the jail.

On the way to the prison at midnight on Nov. 24, she said she continued to fight with detectives.

"I just cried a lot." (ylt)