Two foreigners face death over heroin

Two foreigners face death over heroin

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Prosecutors requested separate courts on Monday to hand down
death sentences for Senegalese and Sierra Leone suspects charged
with heroin trafficking.

Seck Osmane, a 30-year old Senegalese national, was found in
possession of 25 packages of heroin weighing 2.4 kilograms at his
house in South Jakarta, prosecutor Suntoro was quoted by Antara
as saying.

He said police officers confiscated the heroin as evidence in
an Oct. 20, 2003, raid at the house on Jl. Lebak Bulus II,
Cilandak.

Suntoro told the South Jakarta District Court that Osmane sold
the illegal drug in Indonesia.

"He came to Indonesia and acted in a manner that would destroy
the future of the nation, by smuggling a large quantity of heroin
for sale ... and should be sentenced to death," he said.

The court adjourned the trial until next Monday to hear the
defense's plea.

Separately in Bali, prosecutor Nunung Sugiarto asked the
Denpasar District Court to sentence Emmanuel O. Lhejirika, 31, of
Sierra Leone, to death for heroin trafficking.

The defendant was guilty of smuggling 461.7 grams of heroin
inside his stomach, she said as quoted by Antara.

Lhejirika was caught upon his arrival on Jan. 14 at Ngurah Rai
International Airport via Pakistan, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Accompanied by his lawyer Dodik Firdaus, the defendant cried
as the prosecutor read out the charges against him.

Presiding judge I Nyoman Karmam adjourned the trial until June
29 to hear the defense's plea.

A total of 30 people, most of them foreigners, are on death
row in Indonesia for drug trafficking. None have been executed
pending lengthy appellate processes.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Sunday the
police had firing squads on standby for when prosecutors issued
an order to carry out the sentence.

National Narcotics Coordinating Agency head Togar Sianipar
said at least four of the convicted drug offenders might be
executed if their requests for a presidential pardon were denied.

In the last 10 years, only one drug offender sentenced to
death has been executed: Malaysian Chan Ting Tong, alias Steven
Chong.

Togar argued that the prolonged delay in carrying out the
death sentence had contributed to an increase in drugs cases over
the last three years.

The agency office and the University of Indonesia found in a
study that about 4 percent of the population -- or nine million
people -- used drugs in 2003, an increase of almost 400 percent
compared to the 2002 figure.

"One addict uses Rp 5 million per month on drugs, so nine
million addicts means Rp 45 trillion per month on drugs alone,"
he said.