Two more foreigners sentenced to death
Two more foreigners sentenced to death
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Two more foreigners have been sentenced to death for smuggling
drugs into the country last July.
Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte and Indian Gurdip Singh, both 32
years old, were found guilty of smuggling drugs into the country
in two separate trials on Monday at the Tangerang District Court,
long known for its heavy-handedness in dealing with drug
trafficking cases.
"There is no mitigating factor that could lead to a reduced
sentence," presiding judge Suprapto told Gularte's trial packed
by dozens of activists of the National Anti-Narcotics Movement
(Granat).
As soon as Suprapto read out the verdict, Granat activists and
other visitors applauded, lending strong support to the decision.
"We came here to express support for the judges and there
should be no leniency for drug smugglers," Granat Tangerang
chairman Benny Panjaitan told The Jakarta Post.
Clad in a white shirt and blue jeans, Gularte, who had told
the court that he had wanted to sell the drugs to Americans in
Bali and had asked for a lenient sentence, said he would still
think over the verdict.
Singh, whose verdict was read out after Gularte's trial, said
he would appeal. Prosecutor R. Vidianto, who had sought a 20-year
sentence for Singh, said he would appeal.
Gularte and Singh's verdicts added to a long list of drug
defendants who have been sentenced to death at the district
court.
The court has sentenced to death 30 drug smugglers since
January 2000, but none of them have been executed as they are
still trying to exhaust all legal means available to seek a
remission.
Gularte was arrested carrying 500 grams of pure heroine worth
Rp 2.4 billion (US$265,000) in three large surfboard bags on July
31 last year, along with two other Brazilians -- Fred Silva
Magueta and Emerson Vieira Guimaraes. The two were later freed
due to lack of evidence to implicate them in the smuggling.
Singh was arrested carrying 300 grams of heroin at the
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport last July 29 when he
was about to board a Star Air flight to Surabaya, East Java.
During the trial, Singh told the court that he had received
the heroin from Zulfikar Ali, a Pakistani, who would soon stand
trial at the same court for a similar crime.
He claimed that Ali, arrested along with his Indonesian
girlfriend Dinong Pratidina in Ciampea, Bogor, West Java on Nov.
22, asked him to give the heroin to a man called Toni, in Malang.
Toni is still at large.