'Mitigating factors' save drug convict from death

'Mitigating factors' save drug convict from death

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post/Tangerang

In a new precedent for drug trials in Indonesia, the West Java
High Court commuted the death sentence of a drug convict to 20
years' imprisonment on the grounds that the defendant was only a
courier and had become involved purely to earn money to feed his
family.

"The defendant felt indebted to a person known as Norman, whom
he had got to know only last year, and who had often helped him
financially. So, when Norman asked him to take the (400 grams of)
heroin to Surabaya for Rp 5 million (US$562), the defendant was
willing to do so as a way of returning a favor," the judges
stated in a copy of the ruling made available to the media on
Thursday.

The ruling was signed by the panel of judges comprising Sofyan
Basid, Rata Kembaren and Chasinay R. Tandjung on June 7 in answer
to an appeal lodged by a Nigerian, Stephen Rasheed Akinyemi, 34.

"Besides, we need to take into consideration that the sentence
is not for revenge but to enable the convict to improve himself
and learn from his past mistakes."

The ruling went against an earlier verdict delivered by
Tangerang District Court on March 5.

Akinyemi, who is married to an Indonesian woman and has three
children, was arrested at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in
Cengkareng before flying to Surabaya on July 1, 2003.

None of the prosecutors, judges and lawyers in Tangerang was
able to accept the verdict. It was the first time that a death
penalty was reduced to a "lenient" jail term. In most cases,
capital punishment has been reduced to life imprisonment.

Prosecutor Eben Silalahi, who will lodge an appeal with the
Supreme Court, said the High Court considerations were outdated,
and similar arguments had been made by the defendant's lawyer at
the district court.

"Why did the High Court judges not consider the consequences
had the defendant managed to take the heroin to Surabaya and sell
it there?" he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Tangerang District Court chief Zaenal Arifin said the panel of
judges at the district court had "considered all aspects and
agreed that the right way to curb drug smuggling into the country
was through capital punishment."

Akinyemi's lawyer, Dadi Waluyo, applauded the High Court
ruling, which, he said, had adopted his arguments.

Separately, death convict Rani Andriani demanded that the
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) join the
campaign against the death penalty as it was brutal and
unnecessary. Her execution is scheduled for September.

"Capital punishment such as this must be stopped as it
violates the right to life, as stipulated in Article 9 of Law No.
39/1999 on human rights," her lawyer, Habiburahman, was quoted as
saying by Antara at the commission office.

Rani, together with her cousins Meirika Franola and Denny
Setia Maharwan, was sentenced to death by Tangerang District
Court on Aug. 22, 2000, for possessing three kilograms of heroin.