Former boxer Pical gets sevent-month jail term

Former boxer Pical gets sevent-month jail term

The West Jakarta District Court sentenced former world boxing
champion Ellyas Pical to seven months in jail on Thursday for
possessing three ecstasy tablets.

Pical, who was the IBF super flyweight champion between 1985
and 1989, was arrested in July for selling ecstasy to undercover
detectives in Miles discotheque in West Jakarta where he worked
as a bouncer.

Despite the prosecutor's demand of a one-year sentence, the
judge said a mitigating factor was that the former boxer once
brought international prestige to the nation, Antara news service
reported.

Pical, 48, known as "the Exocet" because of his powerful left
hook, became the country's first international boxing champion
when he took the title from South Korean Judo Chun in 1985 in
Jakarta, The Associated Press reported.

A month before his arrest, Pical -- who has a fifth grade
education -- told The Jakarta Post he wished the government had
provided him with a job once his boxing career was finished. --
Agencies