Tangerang court continues to dish out death sentence
Tangerang court continues to dish out death sentence
The Tangerang District Court has been consistent in dealing
with drug cases. On Monday, May 25, judges Ade Komarudin,
Suhartoyo and P Joseph Ziraulo, handed down the death sentence to
defendant Merri Utami a.k.a Cahyawanti Jurianti, who was arrested
for bringing 1.10 kilos of heroin into the country on Oct. 31,
2001, upon her arrival at the Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport.
Merri is the fourth Indonesian woman to receive the death
sentence after Meirika Franola, Rani Andriani and Edith Yunita
Sianturi. The four all had foreign lovers and they were requested
to courier drugs from abroad. Merri had just came from Nepal on a
Singapore Airlines flight when she was caught red-handed with
heroin in her bag.
The verdict makes it the seventeenth death sentence handed
down by the Tangerang District Court since Jan. 1, 2000, with 12
defendants being foreigners. They were all tried for drug
smuggling and had brought the goods into the country via the
airport.
During the period when the death sentences were passed there
have been some reassignments at the Tangerang District Court,
something which has confused the judges there. It is considered
something out of the ordinary that seven of the 14 judges who had
handed down the death sentence, were transferred to other offices
in early May even though their services are still needed.
In fact, the consistency of the judges should be applauded by
the Ministry for Justice and Human Rights as it is in accordance
with the government program. President Megawati Soekarnoputri on
various occasions has declared a total war on drug trafficking,
an activity now rampant in the society. She has even requested
officials in her political party to undergo a drug test so as to
prove her commitment.
In this respect, the hard work and the consistency of all law
enforcers is crucial, starting from the arrest up to the
prosecution. They must not give in nor give up.
-- Warta Kota, Jakarta