Taiwanese jailed for drugs

Taiwanese jailed for drugs

TANGERANG (JP): The Tangerang District Court sentenced a
Taiwan national on Monday to four years and six months in prison
for illegally possessing more than 4,700 Ecstasy pills.

Presiding judge Achmad Zaini said that the 30-year-old
defendant Cheng Chin Lung was also fined Rp 5 million or would
have to spend another four months in jail should the fine not be
paid.

The verdict was lighter than prosecutor H. Mursidi's demand
that the defendant be given a term of six-years imprisonment and
a Rp 10 million fine, or another six-months imprisonment should
the fine not be paid.

According to the panel of judges, the defendant was arrested
at Soekarno-Hatta Airport on July 24, 2000 with a total of 4,721
Ecstasy pills in several plastic bags tied to his legs.

The defendant had earlier said that he left Taiwan for Jakarta
on July 22. A friend identified as Afong saw him off at the
airport, and said that he should return to Taiwan soon after a
woman gave him the pills in Jakarta.

Upon arriving at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, a woman met him and
took him to a certain place in a car with his eyes blindfolded.
The woman then gave him several plastic bags containing the
pills, and took him back to the airport, still with his eyes
blindfolded, the defendant told the court earlier.

Airport security officers arrested him when the detector at
the departure gate sounded.

The defendant's defense lawyer, John Kalangit, said he was
thinking about a possible appeal. (41/sur)