Wife gets 7 years for drug dealing

JAKARTA: West Jakarta District Court sentenced on Monday a wife of a marine to seven years in prison and ordered the defendant to pay a Rp 3 million (US$337) fine for possessing and trading narcotics.

Presiding judge Muchtar Ritonga told the court that the defendant Nurhayati, 44, who is a mother of four, was guilty of committing the crime from her home in Tambora, West Jakarta.

Her husband, Chief Sgt. Sukiman, now being detained by the military police on the case, aided Nurhayati by contacting the drug supplier for Nurhayati, who acted as the dealer.

The last transaction was on Jan. 3, when the couple bought 73 grams of heroin, each gram at the cost of Rp 350,000, from Keling. The latter is still at large. The police also seized 0.2 grams of shabu-shabu (crystal metamphetamine) from the house.

Nurhayati claimed she sold the drugs via two former policemen, identified as Robert Reger and Mursal alias Encing, who took each gram of heroin for Rp 715,000.

The verdict conformed with the prosecution's recommended sentence. -- Antara