Two Nigerians on trial for drug

TANGERANG: Two Nigerians were sent to the Tangerang District Court on Thursday for allegedly trafficking 5.6 kilograms of heroin.

Presiding judge Permadi, however, postponed the hearing for a week to give the defendants, Michael Titus Igweh, 23, and Hillary K. Chimezia, 24, a chance to find a lawyer.

The two defendants, along with Zimbabwean Nkomo Kholisani alias Ichuku Eberu Okolwaja, 33, were tried separately at the same court in January.

But Permadi, who also presided over the sessions, freed them because the prosecutors' indictment was considered inaccurate.

The police rearrested them for re-investigation as soon as they left the correctional institute in February, where they were held during their trial. Defendant Nkomo Kholisani reportedly died at the Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta due to AIDS.

The defendants were first arrested in August 2002 after the police nabbed Nkomo's girlfriend Marlena, 24, an Indonesian, on Aug. 17, 2002 in a raid at her house, where the police found 50 grams of heroin in her bag.

Marlena died in December at the police hospital. The police said she suffered from lung disease. --JP