Dutchman gets three years for drug trafficking
JAKARTA (JP): Dutchmen Christian van den Bosch was sentenced by the Central Jakarta district court on Saturday to three years imprisonment for drug trafficking.
Christian is also obliged by the court to pay a court fee of Rp 5 million (US$ 2,300).
Christian, who sat calmly at his seat throughout the session, listened attentively when presiding Judge Djamil Sularso passed the guilty verdict and immediately said that he would appeal after interpreter Meity Joseph informed him of the verdict.
The three year sentence given by the court is much lighter than the six years demanded by state Prosecutor Suriansjah. Based on article 81 of the health laws the maximum sentence for the crime is seven years plus a fine of up to Rp 140 million.
"You have been found guilty under the new health law, not the old health ordonantie," Judge Sularso said referring to the Dutch oriented Stbld. 419/1949 law which the prosecutor also claimed to have been violated by Christian.
The Stbld. 419/1949 makes the supply of dangerous drugs without proper licensing illegal.
Christian was arrested on Feb. 6 at the Borobudur Intercontinental hotel lobby coffee shop after he and three accomplices were caught trying to sell 167 "Eva" pills containing the illegal substance derivat amphetamine.
Two of his alleged accomplices, Steven J. Bryner and Peter Karajin, were security guards at the American Embassy here in Jakarta and are to be tried in the same case in United States territory.
The third, a Dutch citizen of Ambonese descent by the name of Leonard Jacobus alias Levi, is being tried separately at the Central Jakarta district court.
According to police investigation, Christian met a woman named Nova last year at Tanah Mur discotheque, Central Jakarta, who agreed to purchase several thousand Eva pills at a price of Rp 80,000 each.
Return
A few months later Christian returned to the Netherlands and sent a package containing the pills to the address of Bryner at Jl. Cikatomas I No. 31, South Jakarta.
Upon his return to Indonesia in January, Christian was soon contacted by Nova's cohort who asked that the transaction be made at the Borobudur Intercontinental hotel, Central Jakarta.
It was Levi who was allegedly caught about to perform a drug transaction with an Indonesian by the name of Irsan while in possession of 163 Eva pills inside the hotel's toilet.
Upon their arrest at the hotel, police then began a search of the house at Jl. Cikatomas I where the four foreigners were dwelling together and found 7,500 Eva pills hidden in a cabinet.
During the trial both Bryner and Christian were accusing each other of owning the pills.
Judge Sularso, in announcing the sentence, pointed to the fact that though Christian was not in possession of any drugs at the time of arrest, various testimony points to there being collusion between them to carry out the transaction.
"There doesn't need to be physical evidence of prior discussion or arrangement to give proof of a conspiracy," he said.(mds)