Nigerian faces death sentence

BOGOR: Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death sentence for a Nigerian citizen, Jhon Sebastian, and a life sentence for his Indonesian girlfriend, Nova Herawati, who were charged with possessing some 300 grams of heroin.

At a hearing at the Cibinong District Court presided over by Judge Eka Budi, prosecutor Bambang Suharijadi said his office had seized 300 grams of heroin from the two suspects, which was to be traded at the University of Indonesia campus in Depok, Bogor, last year.

The prosecutor said Nova acted as a distributor and Sebastian as the owner.

Bambang stressed the two suspects had violated Article 88 of Law. No. 22/1997 on narcotics and Article 55 of the Criminal Code.

He said that there were no mitigating factors in the sentence demand for Sebastian.

According to Bambang, Sebastian was part of a narcotic trafficking syndicate from Nigeria.

Nova was arrested in October 2002 while selling heroin to an UI student, while Sebastian was apprehended at a hotel on Jl. Wahid Hasyim in Central Jakarta.

The 300 grams of heroin was worth around Rp 75 million. --JP