Jail sentence sought for alleged smuggler

TANGERANG (JP): The director of an export company was indicted on Friday at Tangerang District Court for attempting to smuggle cobras to neighboring Malaysia and Singapore last November.

"The defendant was trying to smuggle 540 cobras to Malaysia and Singapore by means of counterfeited export documents," prosecutor Supriati said at the initial hearing in the trial of Yuliana binti Hasan of CV Winada Pratama.

The prosecutor said the act of counterfeiting export documents to disguise the true contents of a shipment was in violation of Article 103 of 1995 Law No. 10 on International Customs. The article carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

The case sets a precedent because the police were not involved in the preparation of the dossiers. The preliminary investigation of the case was conducted by officials from the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's Customs and Excise Office.

Customs officials also arrested three other suspects -- Prawoto, Sudarman and Budiardjo -- who are being tried separately.

In the indictment, the prosecutor said the defendant, a North Jakarta resident, tried to smuggle 540 cobras packed in 36 cartons destined for Malaysia and Singapore.

The cobras, which are listed as protected in the country, were owned by someone identified as Mr. Lee, Supriati said.

She stated Yuliana attempted to deceive the customs officials by providing them with a fake document and fictitious name of an export company.

"With the help of Prawoto, Sudarman and Budiardjo, the defendant stated in the document the contents were crabs, not cobras," she said in the hearing presided over by Judge Haogoro Harefa.

Supriati said Yuliana identified the exporter as PT Wahana Pratama instead of CV Winada Pratama.

She said the custom officials discovered the smuggling attempt on Nov. 24 as the packages were undergoing inspection.

"Instead of finding crabs in the cartons, the officials found protected animals of cobras inside," she said.

The section head for information affairs of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport customs office, Sudirman, said his agency decided to proceed with the case because the police often let similar cases slide without providing clear reasons.

"Starting from today, we will proceed with the cases ourselves. We should not rely on the police," he said.

Haogoro adjourned the hearing until Monday to hear the defense statement. (41/asa)