Two foreigners get death for drug smuggling

Two foreigners get death for drug smuggling

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Two foreigners received the death sentence on Tuesday for
attempting to smuggle 450 grams of heroin from Thailand into the
country in April this year.

Defendant Bunyong Khaosa Ard, 45, a Thai woman and Obina
Nwajagu, 28, a Nigerian man, were found guilty by the Tangerang
District Court in two separate sessions presided over by Judge
Zainal Arifin and two other judges, Maha Nikmah and Suprapto.

The court said there were no mitigating factors that may have
helped them obtain a lighter sentence.

The damning factors were that the defendants conducted the
crime amid government's efforts to fight rampant drug abuse and
that the impact of the defendants' deeds could result in the
death of many of the country's young people.

The judges also said the defendants had tried to cover up
their wrongdoing during the court sessions and that they had
tainted the image of Indonesia as a target market for drug
trafficking.

"We gave the maximum sentences as a deterrent for those who
intend to commit drug offenses and in so doing we hope that the
number of drug traffickers can be reduced," Zainal said.

The court was packed with visitors, including dozens of
reporters from newspapers, TV and radio, and 18 candidate judges
from the Ministry of Justice and Human Right's training center.

Both defendants, however, seemed very relaxed and calm despite
the harsh verdict.

Zaim Affandi of the Thai embassy, who acted as interpreter for
Ard, said that he had already told Bunyong that she would be
sentenced to death, like eight other Thai people who had earlier
received capital punishment in Tangerang, Jakarta and in Tanjung
Gusta, North Sumatra.

The defendants' defense lawyers Horas Sirait and Alisati
Siregar said they would appeal to the high court while
prosecutors M. Adam and Martha P. Berliana said they would think
over whether or not to appeal the verdict.

Earlier, the prosecutors sought life imprisonment for the two
defendants.

The defendants were charged with violating Article 82 and
Article 78 of Law No. 22/1997 on drugs, which carry a maximum
punishment of death.

Ard, a single mother, worked as a food vendor in Bangkok to
feed her two children after her husband left them. She arrived at
the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport terminal D at 2 p.m. on
April 6 aboard Thai Airways flight TG-433.

Customs and excise officers became suspicious of her since
she claimed to be a tourist but was wearing shabby clothes.

The officers found nothing in her luggage, but they remained
suspicious as she looked nervous and confused and was perspiring
profusely. She was then asked to undergo an examination
that showed there were foreign objects in her stomach.

Ard was then given some medicine and three hours later she
expelled the 45 capsules. A narcotest result confirmed that the
capsules were filled with heroin.

She confessed that she had planned to deliver the drugs to
Obina Nwajagu, who was later arrested in room 512 at Hotel Ibis
in Slipi, West Jakarta.

Ard testified that she was asked by a woman to deliver the
drugs to Obina in Jakarta and was promised US$500 after she
returned to Thailand.

Since January 2000, the Tangerang District Court has sentenced
to death 20 other drug traffickers comprising five Indonesians,
five Nigerians, five Nepalese, two Thai women, a Pakistani man, a
Zimbabwean and a Malawian.