Sierra Leone citizen gets death for drug dealing

Sierra Leone citizen gets death for drug dealing

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan

The Medan District Court in North Sumatra sentenced on Wednesday
a 28-year-old foreigner to death for serving as a middleman in
international drug dealing.

A panel of three judges, led by Dahlia Brahmana, accepted the
sentencing demand by prosecutors for Sierra Leone citizen Okonkwo
Nonso Kingsle, saying there was no compelling reason to hand down
a lighter sentence.

Kingsle had committed "highly professional and organized work
that could endanger the lives of youths in the country", the
court said.

Kingsle was arrested by customs and excise officials on Oct.
25 last year at Polonia International Airport, Medan, upon
arrival from Malaysia.

An X-ray revealed 69 capsules of heroin weighing a total of
1.18 kilograms in his stomach.

"The defendant deserves the death sentence because we found no
mitigating circumstances in this case. He has been proven without
a doubt to be a middleman in an international narcotics network
to deliver heroin from Pakistan to Indonesia," Judge Dahlia said.

Kingsle was charged under Article 82 of Law No. 22/1997 on
narcotics, which carries a maximum penalty of death.

Through an interpreter, Kingsle said he accepted the verdict,
and asked when he would be executed.

During previous hearings at the court, Kingsle admitted that
he brought the heroin from Pakistan. He said a man he met called
Bruce offered him US$1,000 to bring the heroin to Indonesia.

Kingsle said that he agreed to act as a courier because he
needed money.

It is the second death sentence to be handed down by the Medan
District Court, the first being in 1995 when the court convicted
Indian Ayodhya Prasadh Chaubey of possessing 12 kilograms of
heroin.

Ayodhya has yet to be executed, pending appeal to the Supreme
Court.

Since enforcement of the 1997 Narcotics and Psychotropic
Substances Law, local courts have sentenced at least 23 people to
death for drug dealing. Most of them were foreigners, most of
whom were arrested at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in
Tangerang, Banten.

None has been executed to date.