Malaysian gets 11 years for drugs

Malaysian gets 11 years for drugs

TANGERANG: Tangerang District Court sentenced Malaysian Tan
Chan Wen, 31, on Tuesday to 11 years in prison for possessing
19,951 ecstasy pills.

The three panel judges: Presiding Judge Suprapto; Maha Nikmah
and Bambang Wirawan; determined the defendant was guilty for
violating Article 59 of Law No. 5/1997 on psychotropic substances
and has to pay a fine of Rp 100 million (US$11,905).

The article carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail.

The sentence was more lenient than the prosecutors earlier
demand of 15 years imprisonment and fine of Rp 150 million.

Tan was arrested at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport
on June 21, 2003, before boarding a plane to Batam, Riau.

The gate officers found a box wrapped in aluminum foil in his
luggage, containing the ecstasy pills. Tan confessed that some
400 pills were his, but the rest belonged to Mr. Kent, who is
still at large. -- JP