Drug trial moves forward

JAKARTA (JP): A defendant told the Central Jakarta District Court on Friday that someone gave him more heroin than he expected in a drug transaction at Hotel Hannover in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, last April.

"Joey handed me 100 grams of heroin at the hotel, although I earlier told him only to bring several grams," Christian Chinedu Ejionye, a Liberian national, said in the hearing presided over by judge I Gde Sumitra.

Asked why he accepted the large amount of heroin, the defendant said he did not have the chance to argue because the police had already arrived.

"A number of police officers were around us. Joey managed to flee the scene, leaving me alone along with the drugs," he said.

The 49-year-old defendant said he contacted Joey on April 22, or four days before the transaction. "I told him I needed a few grams of heroin."

"I used heroin only when I was stressed," Ejionye said, adding that when he used heroin it was always less than a gram.

In the hearing on Friday, the court also heard testimony from Sadroh, 38, who owns a house in Cilandak Timur, South Jakarta, which has been rented by the defendant and his wife since last year.

"The defendant always left me his keys whenever he left the house. He only let his wife pick up the keys from me," she said during the trial.

In a previous hearing, prosecutor Fachruddin said police detectives Antonius Paryadi and Sutriyanto arrested the defendant as he purchased the drugs from Joey at the hotel on April 26. Joey is still at large.

Fachruddin said police raided the defendant's rental home three days after the arrest and found 250 grams of heroin packed in three transparent plastic packages which were kept in milk cartons. The defendant said during the hearing that nobody but he and his wife had access to the house.

The prosecutor indicted the defendant under Article 82 of the 1997 Law on Narcotics, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Judge I Gde Sumitra adjourned the trial until Nov. 5, at which time the prosecutor will read out his sentencing demand.(asa)