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Prosecutor Eben Silalahi, who will lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court, said the High Court considerations were outdated, and similar arguments had been made by the defendant's lawyer at the district court.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