Soeharto's in-law Maya given early leave from jail

JAKARTA (JP): Former president Soeharto's granddaughter-in-law Gusti Maya Firanti Noor, 29, was released from Pondok Bambu Women's Penitentiary in East Jakarta on Friday, five weeks before the end of her eight-month sentence.

Maya's lawyer, Asfifuddin, said that the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Affairs had granted Maya's request to leave her cell for medical treatment for humanitarian reasons.

"My client was released because she is sick and needs intensive medical treatment," he told the Jakarta Post by phone.

Despite her release, Maya must report regularly to the penitentiary in the next five weeks, Asfifuddin added.

Maya was sentenced by the West Jakarta District Court last October to eight months in prison for possessing 1.5 grams of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine).

The jail term was lighter than the one-year sentence sought by prosecutor Achjadi Sartono, who based legal arguments on Article 62 of the 1999 Law on Psychotropic Substances that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

In the verdict, presiding judge Handojo said that despite harming society with her behavior, the defendant, who admitted having been addicted to drugs, had expressed regret.

The judges were moved to impose a lighter sentence by the fact that the defendant has "three children who still love her". The judges also pointed out that Maya, who was suffering from lung problems, was in need of treatment to get off drugs.

Among the people who picked up Maya from jail was her mother Helda Djafar Noor. However, her businessman husband, Ari Sigit Hardjoyudanto was not present, nor were any of Soeharto's family.

It is an open secret that Soeharto's family have made Maya an outcast for having disgraced them. None of them visited Maya at the penitentiary during the Idul Fitri holidays.

Reports said Ari has a relationship with another woman.

Maya was reportedly under medication when the West Jakarta police arrested her in a car on the evening of June 22 last year for possessing shabu-shabu. She was in West Jakarta Police custody until the district court's sentence.

During the police investigation, Maya admitted that she had been using shabu-shabu for at least one year.

The defendant once said she would appeal the sentence to the Jakarta High Court "within a week", but she did not appeal. (01)