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