Nigerian gets death for drug smuggling
Nigerian gets death for drug smuggling
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Judges at the Tangerang District Court on Friday sentenced
Nigerian Stephen Rasyaad Akinyemi to death by firing squad for
drug smuggling.
The court, which earlier suspended its verdict to allow
Akinyemi, 35, to recover from a severe headache and toothache,
gave him seven working days to appeal.
He is the 24th person the court has handed down death
sentences to for drug smuggling since the passing of the
narcotics and psychotropic substance laws in 1998.
Presiding judge Suprapto and panel members Maha Nikmah and
Benar Sihombing found the defendant guilty of possessing 400
grams of heroin for supply found with him at the Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport, Tangerang, last June.
"The death penalty is the most suitable punishment for the
crime," Suprapto told the closing hearing.
By bringing heroin the defendant had ignored the Indonesian
government's antidrug campaign. His actions would only exacerbate
the nation's drug problem among youth, he said.
"The crime was committed in a syndicate, therefore, the
maximum penalty is given to deter others."
Akinyemi, who is married to an Indonesian, had pleaded for the
judges' mercy.
"Pak Prapto, I realize that I was wrong. I have a wife and we
have two children. I beg you not to impose the maximum sentence
against me," he read in his plea early in the session.
The sentence is harsher than the life sentence and Rp 250
million (US$29,411) fine proposed by the team of prosecutors, led
by Eben Silalahi.
Akinyemi was arrested at the airport on June 1, last year,
when he was about to take a plane to Surabaya. Seeing him walking
suspiciously, a security guard stopped him.
Officers found two plastic bags under his socks. Tests
confirmed the powder inside was heroin.
The defendant said he was asked by a friend -- "Norman" --to
fly to Surabaya and give the drug to a man waiting at the Juanda
Airport. He was promised Rp 5 million as payment by Norman, who
is still at large.
Not replying to the judges' question of whether he would
appeal the verdict, Akinyemi left the courtroom for the Tangerang
penitentiary.
He attempted to calm down his distraught wife and held his two
sons close.
To date, at least five of the earlier 23 death sentences have
been commuted to life in prison by higher courts.
Since the convicts have the right to file an appeal, many of
the cases are still under Supreme Court review, and others are
seeking presidential clemency, further pending the execution of a
death penalty.