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.