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.