Three Africans, a Nepalese get death penalthy

TANGERANG (JP): Surprised, angered and saddened, two Nigerians, a Zimbabwean and a Nepalese got more than what they expected on Monday when the Tangerang District Court sentenced them to death for drug offenses.

Prosecutors had demanded that the court sentence all four defendants to life imprisonment, but the court meted out a heavier penalty, sending them to death row instead. The defendants seemed astonished.

In four separate court sessions, Nigerians Okwudili Ayotanze, 21, and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa, 33, Zimbabwean Ozias Sibanda, 33, and Nepalese Indra Bahadur Tamang, 21, were found guilty of smuggling heroin into the country from Pakistan and Thailand in January this year.

Ade Komarudin, who presided over the panel of judges trying Ayotanze, contended that a death sentence was appropriate for drug traffickers like Ayotanze in order to discourage drug trafficking.

"Our considerations were based on legal certainty as well as the impact of a court verdict on society and on the people's sense of justice," Ade said as soon as he concluded the sentencing of Ayotanze.

Ayotanze and Ozias Sibanda were caught by Soekarno-Hatta international airport's customs officers on Jan. 30 trying to smuggle 1.15 kilograms and 850 grams of heroin respectively. They had arrived on a Singapore Airlines flight from Karachi.

Hansen Nwaliosa was apprehended at the airport on Jan. 29, trying to smuggle 600 grams of heroin after arriving on a Pakistani Airlines flight from Karachi.

Customs officials at the airport arrested Indra Tamang on Jan. 20 for attempting to smuggle 900 grams of heroin after catching a Singapore Airlines flight from Bangkok, with a stopover in Singapore.

All four prisoners attempted to smuggle the heroin in capsules which they swallowed.

Prosecutors charged the four with violating a number of articles in Anti-Drug Law No. 22/1997 and demanded life imprisonment.

While Ayotanze said he would think over whether or not to appeal the death penalty, the other three prisoners declared that they would appeal the verdicts to the High Court and immediately signed an appeal statement provided by their lawyer, Arias Rahadian.

After hearing the verdicts, each prisoner was immediately escorted back to Tangerang's male penitentiary by prosecutors and several police officers.

"I don't think of myself anymore, all I remember is my daughter's and my wife's faces," Hansen Nwaliosa told The Jakarta Post while he was being taken out the courtroom.

Monday's death sentences brings the number of inmates at Tangerang's on death row to 13. They include five Nepalese, three Nigerians, three Indonesians, one Angolan and one Zimbabwean.

The Indonesians are Merika Franola, Deni Setyawan Maharwan and Rani Andriani -- all relatives.

All 13 prisoners have been sentenced to death by the Tangerang District Court since January, 2000. (42)