Nigerian drug dealer sentenced to death

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced on Tuesday Nigerian citizen Humprey Ijike, alias Doctor, to death after he was found guilty of possessing and distributing 1.7 kilograms (kg) of heroin.

This is the first time the Central Jakarta District Court has handed down the death sentence to a drug dealer. In Tangerang, 23 drug dealers have been sentenced to death although none has been executed, pending appeals or clemency petitions.

Presiding judge Mulyani read out the verdict that the defendant, as a foreigner, intentionally distributed heroin in Indonesia that would have a damaging impact on the young generation. The panel of judges also said that the defendant had committed the crime during the government's war on drugs.

Mulyani said the judges had not found mitigating factors in the defendant's favor as he had varied his testimony during the trial and had not showed any remorse.

Defense lawyer Hasoloan Hutabarat said after the verdict that the case was not valid. He claimed that his client was not home when the police raided Ijike's house on Jl. Wahid Hasyim, Central Jakarta, on Aug. 2, 2003. During the raid, the police found the 1.7 kg of heroin packed into five socks in his bedroom.

"The heroin was not his. If he had known that there was heroin in his bedroom, why did he return home (after being called by his employee)?" Hasoloan asked, as quoted by Antara.

He regretted that other Nigerians at the site were told to leave by the police but Ijike, who had just arrived home, was arrested instead.