Two phone fraudsters face jail

JAKARTA (JP): A state-prosecutor asked the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday to sentence two foreigners to 10 months imprisonment for allegedly abusing cellular phone numbers belonging to seven Indonesians.

Prosecutor Ohoi Ulun said the defendants, Ng Chee Leong, 28, of Malaysia and Hasnat Ahmad Varya, 25, of Pakistan were charged with Article 12 of the 1989 Law on Telecommunication pertaining to violations of telecommunication rules.

Ohoi dropped an earlier charge of pulse theft under Article 365 of the Criminal Code for lack of evidence.

Chee Leong and Varya gained access to the seven cellular phone numbers using sophisticated tools such as hand-made cellular phone, Ohoi said.

They were arrested at a hotel in Mangga Besar district in April by police after the seven people complained that their cellular phone bills in March were unusually large.

Police said the defendants had made the seven numbers available for long distance calls to phone users in Malaysia.

Ohoi underscored their admission of guilt in court among the mitigating factors for the defendants.

The trial was adjourned until Thursday to hear the judges' verdict. (12)