Liberian tried for his role in heroin trafficking

JAKARTA (JP): A Liberian citizen was indicted at Central Jakarta District Court yesterday on charges of being involved in an 850-gram heroin deal.

Prosecutor Toto Sucasto said the defendant, Jones Brown, 23, and his two Nigerian accomplices, Melvin Chiguzie Nwizu Attueyi and Laor Treekem, were arrested Nov. 6 last year at Permata Harmoni Hotel on Jl. Tanah Abang.

"The defendant was arrested when he met Attueyi and Treekem who had brought the heroin with them in a bag," Toto said.

Attueyi and Treekem would be tried separately by the same court, he said.

Toto charged the defendant under Article 82 (1.a) of Law No. 22/1997 on narcotics, which carries a maximum punishment of death and a fine of up to Rp 1 billion (US$125,000).

Toto said outside the court that the defendant was a member of a Nigerian drug syndicate.

He said Brown told the police that he was an artist. "I'm a singer. Sing... sing," he quoted the defendant as saying.

Toto said the defendant also claimed to have come here to export garments from Tanah Abang market. "It's difficult to get a true story from a drug dealer," he said.

Brown said in the court's detention room said that he arrived here from Bangkok one day before he was arrested.

"I came here to renew my visa. I have shown my return ticket to Bangkok," he said.

Brown, who was visited by his Thai girlfriend yesterday, said that he met the two Nigerians just before he was arrested.

"It's like you meet Indonesians in Korea. But you don't know them," he told reporters.

He said that he was a graphic artist and used to work on a newspaper in Nigeria.

He added he had lived in Bangkok for two years and worked for a computer company there.

Presiding judge Agus Air Guliga Dewata adjourned the trial to next week to hear the defendant's lawyers' statement. (jun)