Two may be jailed for operating gambling den

JAKARTA (JP): Prosecutor Soejitno demanded yesterday that the North Jakarta District court sentence defendant Guan An and Willy Hartono to eight and five months imprisonment respectively for their alleged roles in a gambling operation.

"Guan An's involvement in the illicit gambling business has been proven, therefore I urge the honorable judges to sentence him to eight months imprisonment," he said.

Guan An is the owner of the 400 square meter Lucky Plaza in Pluit, which was rented by Taslim Biyanti -- a gambling lord whose den was closed down on June 11 by an Operation Cleansing team.

In the previous session, Guan confessed that he had been renting the place to Taslim since May 25 at Rp 200,000 per day.

During yesterday's session, which was led by presiding judge Surti Hari Pramono, Soejitno said that defendant Willy Hartono was another key figure in the gambling operation. Willy Hartono is alleged to be a Taslim's financier as well as a frequent visitor to the underground gambling hall.

Last Friday, Prosecutor H.P.W. Soekewi asked the judge to sentence Taslim to one year imprisonment for his alleged role in the gambling business.

Taslim and his 20 employees were among the 238 people apprehended on June 11 at the ironically named Lucky Plaza building on Jl. Pluit Indah Jaya. The gamblers were taken into custody by a 40-strong Operation Cleansing team from the Jakarta Chapter of the Agency for the Support of National Stability (Bakorstanasda Jaya).

Of the total, five were Malaysians, one was a Hong Kong national and another was Taiwanese. The remaining 231 suspects are Indonesians, mostly of Chinese descent. Included among them are two newspaper reporters and two lawyers.

Police later freed 56 of them, including the journalists and lawyers, saying that they were merely onlookers, and had not taken part in the gambling activities at the time of the raid.

Police later released the remaining gamblers, including five pregnant women, on bail. The 22 people whom police believe to have been operators of the gambling den are still being detained.

City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mochamad Hindarto said earlier that he had assigned the special Babinkamtibmas police patrol to keep tabs on the gamblers who were released on bail.

According to the existing law, a gambler caught red handed faces a maximum imprisonment of four years or a maximum fine of Rp 10 million (US$4,600) if convicted.

A person found illegally operating a gambling hall faces a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine of Rp 25 million.

Presiding Judge Surti adjourned the court session until Thursday, at which time she will read the verdict. On the same day, two judges, Thomas Supardi and Akib Lasangke, will read the verdicts of the 20 other defendants.(03)