Woman tried for alleged attempt of smuggling heroin
Woman tried for alleged attempt of smuggling heroin
TANGERANG (JP): The Tangerang District Court began on Wednesday the hearing of a drugs case involving an Indonesian woman who is alleged to have attempted to smuggle one kilogram of heroin into the country from Thailand in June.
Prosecutor Siti Zahara, who read out the three-page indictment, charged that the defendant Edith Yunita Sianturi, 24, a resident of Jl. Wijaya Kusuma IX, Depok, West Java, had violated Article 82 of Law No. 22/1997 on drugs. The Article carries the death penalty.
According to the prosecutor, the defendant had attempted to smuggle one kilogram of heroin from Thailand into the country through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on June 4.
She said that customs officers Handoyo, Pratikno and Terry Zakaria Muslim became suspicious when they noticed the unusual thickness of the sides of the defendant's purse as she disembarked at Terminal D from TG Airways flight 413 arriving from Bangkok at 5 p.m.
"The officers then took the defendant to the special customs and excise post for further examination," the prosecutor told the court.
She said Handoyo then inserted a needle into the sides of the defendant's purse and as the needle was being withdrawn, a white powder suspected of being a drug was found adhering to it.
Zahara said the officers then tore the purse's sides open and found three brown packets containing the white powder, which weighed a total of one kilogram. Further examination at the National Police laboratory later confirmed that the white powder was heroin.
Clad in a long-sleeved white blouse and black slacks, the defendant, Edith, who used to work as a sales assistant at the Poppy Dharsono cosmetics counter in the Sarinah shopping center on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, was unable to utter a word when encountered by The Jakarta Post, and contained to shed tears from the time she entered until she eventually was led out of the courtroom.
Lawyer Husein Tohuteru, who was appointed by the court to represent the defendant, told the panel of judges that he would require one week to study the prosecution indictment and prepare a defense.
Presiding Judge Maha Nikmah adjourned the trial until Sept. 26.
Pakistani
The district court was also scheduled to begin a separate trial of a Pakistani, Muchamad Abdul Hafeez, in another drugs' case.
Prosecutor Ferry Silalahi, however, said the court had postponed Hafeez's trial because of the absence of an interpreter.
Ferry said that customs and excise officers had foiled Hafeez's attempt to smuggle 1.5 kilograms of heroin into the country from Pakistan through Soekarno-Hatta Airport in May of this year.
In the past 18 months, the court has handed down death sentences to 13 defendants in drugs offenses.(41)