Judge asked not to sentence drug dealer to life
Judge asked not to sentence drug dealer to life
JAKARTA (JP): Lawyer Sofyan Taher, representing an alleged
local drug dealer, Freddy A Thing, yesterday asked Judge Tuaradja
Siregar of the Central Jakarta District Court not to sentence his
client to life imprisonment.
"Your Honor, my client is only a victim of an international
drug syndicate," said the lawyer.
State prosecutor Tengku Zakaria had, on Jan. 24, asked the
judge to sentence Freddy to life imprisonment for his alleged
involvement in trafficking 29 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia.
Freddy was captured by police at Hotel Indonesia, Central
Jakarta, on May 11, as he and two accomplices, his Thai cousin,
Sae Lim Iaw, and, a Malaysian, Tham Tuck Yin alias A Tjai, were
showing six sample packets of heroin to a potential buyer.
In the previous court session Freddy had told the judge that
he was involved in the case because Sae Lim Iaw, alias Boon Tan,
who until January last year he hadn't met for more than 20 years,
entrusted him with some valuables.
"Boon Tan and A Tjai visited me in January and entrusted me to
take care of Boon Tan's belongings, which they described only as
white and fine," Freddy said, adding that Boon Tan promised to
pick up the goods, which turned out to be heroin, after three
days.
The heroin was stored at Freddy's house on Jl. Patriot in
Bekasi.
Freddy said Boon Tan promised him Rp 100 million if the heroin
was sold, and threatened to kill his family if he reported the
heroin to the police.
According to Freddy, he later learnt that the heroin was owned
by a Thai man named Thamanoon Saepho, who had ordered A Tjai to
transport it by a small boat to the Belawan Port, Medan in North
Sumatra before bringing it by bus to Jakarta.
Freddy said he insisted that Boon Tan and A Tjai remove the
heroin from his house but they repeatedly replied, "Not until we
find prospective buyers."
Prosecutor Rochayatun Argasasmita requested in December the
judge sentence A Tjai to death. The request was granted on Jan.
17. Prosecutor Meity Joseph requested the judge hand down Tan the
same sentence. Tan was sentenced to life imprisonment instead.
In yesterday's session Freddy's lawyer, Sofyan Taher, asked
the judge to consider Freddy as a person who had committed a
crime because he was forced to do so and not as a person who
helped criminals in a crime.
"According to Article 48 of Criminal Code, a person who was
forced to commit a crime cannot be punished," he said.
The lawyer also asked the judge to consider Freddy's sincerity
in giving the police the information that there were still an
additional 54 packs in his house on Jl. Patriot, Bekasi.
"Without Freddy's confession, there would be no case," he
said.
The drug raid was the biggest heroin bust in Indonesian
history. The second largest drug haul was recorded seven years
ago in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, when the police captured a
Thai national with 17.7 kilograms of heroin.(mas)