Judge Prim tough on drug offenders

Judge Prim tough on drug offenders

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

His name comes last on the list of the Tangerang District
Court judges as seen on the board hanging on the wall at the
court building. This is because he is the most junior judge at
the court.

But never underestimate him.

The 39-year-old Judge Prim Haryadi, who has been at the court
since in 1999, and he is a "death judge".

Prim Haryadi one of the three-member panel of judges who has
the responsibility to issue death sentences for drug traffickers
tried at the Tangerang District Court.

In January 2000, Prim, along with presiding Judge Satria US
Gumay and Judge Asep Iwan Irawan, imposed the capital punishment
on a Nepalese man who smuggled 1,750 grams of heroin from Nepal
into the country.

Since then, Prim has handed down the death penalty for seven
defendants.

As for the district court, it has sentenced to death a total
of 17 defendants, and gave one defendant a life sentence in
similar cases. They are five Nepalese men, four Indonesian women
and one Indonesian man, three Nigerian men, a Thai woman, a
Pakistani man, an Angolan man and a Zimbabwean man. A man from
Malawi received life imprisonment, but the West Java High Court
changed the sentence into a death penalty.

None of the defendants, however, have been executed.

While those who are on death row are all couriers, the people
behind them remain untouched.

Indonesia, according to National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar,
is now considered as a psychotropic substance producer, and a
prominent narcotics distribution center for Asia. He estimated
that 1.2 percent of the country's 210 million people were drug
abusers.

Last week, in observance of the Anti-Drug Day, the newly
established National Narcotics Body (BNN) selected Prim as the
right person representing the judicial institution to receive its
first annual Main Award related to the attempts in upholding the
law.

The token of appreciation, signed by Bachtiar, was directly
presented by President Megawati at the State Palace on Wednesday.

During the ceremony, the president praised the Tangerang
District Court and called for harsh sentences for drug dealers.

Commenting on the award, Prim told The Jakarta Post: "The
award was not for me personally. I just represented the legal
institution, specifically the Tangerang District Court."

"I am very concerned about the nation's young generation. I
have tried many junior high and high school students for drug
abuse. What will the nation's future be like if the young
generation is poisoned by drugs. We, the judges in Tangerang will
never compromise with drug dealers," he stressed.

Being aware that the country is dragging its feet in the
implementation of the law, Prim said it depends on three factors:
the laws themselves, the societal conditions and the law
enforcers.

Unfortunately, the laws had many loopholes, the people lacked
a real legal awareness, while the law enforcers, in an effort to
enrich themselves, were involved in collusion, corruption and
nepotism, he said.

Prim was born in 1963 in Bengkalis, Riau, from Minang parents
- his late father was a policeman, while his mother a junior high
school principal. He finished his elementary school and junior
high school in Tembilahan, a regency town in Riau province and
studied at a senior high school in Padang, West Sumatra. He
continued his education at the School of Law at Andalas
University, where he began to have an interest in becoming a
judge.

"As a university student, I thought that judges were the most
powerful figures who could decide cases," said the father of two
sons and one daughter from his marriage with Roseyanti in 1987.

Prim spent 16 months working for a private bank in Jakarta
before he was admitted as judge candidate at the East Jakarta
District court in 1988.

In 1992 he began serving as a judge in Kota Bumi and then in
Metro, Lampung. Prim was once sent by the Metro District court to
take a two-month commercial law course in Tokyo and Nagoya,
Japan.

He was transferred to Tangerang in 1999.

Soon after he sentenced to death a Thai woman in March for
smuggling 600 grams of heroin into the country from Bangkok, the
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights assigned him as deputy court
chief in Labuha district court. Labuha is a small town in the
troubled province of North Maluku, but there have been no reports
about any high-profile drug crimes there.

The ministry said that the transfer was just routine, and that
Prim was promoted, but many people alleged that Prim was
"banished" because of his harsh stance against drug traffickers.

One of his colleagues questioned the decision, saying that
usually it would be a senior judge who would be transferred.

In April, Prim asked the court to delay the implementation of
his transfer until September as he needed time to finish his
studies at the University of Indonesia for a master's degree in
law. He added that usually a judge would be transferred after
serving four years at a court.

Besides that, it would be difficult for his wife, who works as
civil servant at the Tangerang municipal administration, to get a
place at the Maluku administration. It would be difficult because
of the implementation of the regional autonomy, he said.

"I am still waiting for the Supreme Court's decree whether or
not it grants my request," said Prim.

Prim said he had never received any threats due to the death
sentence. But before the trial, he admitted that he often
received bribery offers.

"They offered me a huge sum of money, which is enough to cover
my cost of living for three years," said Prim, who likes playing
tennis.

But Prim was not interested, even though his take home pay is
a mere Rp 3.3 million (just over US$300) per month. He said that
to improve his family's welfare, he would teach at private
universities.