Prosecutor charged with drug dealing

JAKARTA: Jakarta Police investigators announced on Friday that they would charge Hendra Ruhendra, a prosecutor at the Cibinong Prosecutor's Office in West Java, with drug dealing and illegal ownership of guns.

Drug unit chief at the city police Adj. Sr. Comr. Sugeng I. Rikolo said that they had submitted Hendra's case file to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office on Thursday.

"We are now waiting for prosecutor's announcement whether the case file is already complete so it can be admitted to the court soon," he said.

By law, the prosecutor's office has 14 days to determine whether the case file is ready for trial or needs to be returned to the police for additional evidence.

Sugeng said that police found sufficient evidence, including the drugs and the guns and witnesses -- including several other prosecutors in Cibinong -- to charge the suspect.

Laws No. 22/1997 on narcotics and No. 5/1997 on psychotropic substances stipulate that a drug offender may face the death sentence as the maximum punishment.

Hendra, 40, the head of the general crimes section at the Cibinong Prosecutor's Office, was arrested in his apartment in South Jakarta on Aug. 26 with 187 grams of crystal methamphetamine, known in local slang as shabu-shabu, as well as two unlicensed guns and one licensed gun.

Police arrested him after they were informed by Subur Supriandono, 29, who was arrested on Aug. 25 in Cilandak, South Jakarta, with 32 grams of crystal methamphetamine.

Subur confessed to the police that he bought the drug from Hendra.

Sugeng said that aside from charging Hendra with drug dealing, the police also would charge him with illegal ownership of guns.

"He said that he got the two guns when he was assigned in Kalimantan. The National Police Headquarters confirmed that the guns had no license," he said.

Article 1 of Emergency Law No. 12/1951 on illegal possession of gun with maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

The Attorney General's Office has announced recently that they had temporarily removed Hendra from his post pending the court's final decision. --JP