Police send Zarina back to prison
JAKARTA (JP): The city police detectives decided on Wednesday to send 'Ecstasy Queen' Zarina Mirafsur to the Tangerang Women's Prison.
At 11.10 p.m. on Wednesday night, officers obtained Zarina's signature on the letter needed to transfer her to the prison.
Maj. Gusti Ketut Gunawa, head of the police narcotics unit, said that Zarina was being sent to the prison to continue her remaining two years in jail, part of a four-year term she started serving in 1996 for storing nearly 30,000 ecstasy pills, while waiting for the completion of her new drug case.
"Moreover, she has already been named a suspect in the new drug case," the officer said.
27-year-old Zarina was freed on parole on Oct. 21 last year from a four-year jail term which was supposed to end in November 2000.
On Nov. 11 this year Zarnia was caught with her boyfriend Ahian Santoso in a West Jakarta apartment room, together with drugs and accesories.
After repeatedly denying police charges, Zarina stunned Jakarta Police chiefs last weekend when it was disclosed that she had left police detention to go to a discotheque four days after her arrest.
It was reminiscent, in its audacity, of her astounding escape from police custody a few days after her arrest in 1996, when she managed to leave the country before finally being arrested in the United States.
The plan to take Zarina to the Tangerang Women's Prison, which is about 35 kilometers to the west of the Jakarta Police headquarters, had kept detectives busy since Wednesday morning completing all the necessary paperwork.
Except for a distant relative who happened to be in the area, neither Zarina's parents or any other of her family members were present to witness the police putting her into a prison van.
"Are you sure? You must be wrong. This is impossible. Nobody was notified. Not even Pak Ali knows of this," said Cynthia, the relative, referring to one of Zarina's lawyers.
One of Zarina's 13 lawyers, Roy Rening, questioned the police's maneuver.
"The case dossiers have not been completed as yet, and nothing has been sent to the Jakarta Prosecutors Office. Without the office's written permit, how can the police do this?" Roy told reporters.
Zarina, still in her blue prison uniform, was led from police detention at about 4 p.m. on Thursday. When outside she immediately let down her hair and tried hard to look her best, as TV and press reporters crowded round her.
She was immediately ushered into a room, where she spoke with five representatives of the prison.
On Tuesday, Minister of Law and Legislation Yusril Ihza Mahendra said his office had decided to revoke Zarina's conditional release on the grounds that she had violated it due to her alleged involvement in the recent drug case.
Roy asked Yusril to review his statement as his client had not yet been proven guilty before a court of law.
Zarina is scheduled to appear on Thursday at 10 a.m. before the South Jakarta District Court in an initial hearing of a lawsuit against the Jakarta Police for coercing her to sign a dossier in which she was named a suspect in the recent drug case. (ylt)