Zarina dossier handed over to city prosecutor

JAKARTA (JP): City police officially handed over well-known drug suspect Zarina Mirafsur and evidence from her case to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office on Monday.

Under the escort of at least five police officers, Zarina arrived in a minibus at the prosecutor's office on Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said in South Jakarta at 2:55 p.m.

The transfer of the suspect and evidence follows the police's submission of the completed dossier on the case to the prosecutor's office last week.

Zarina was transported from Tangerang Women's Penitentiary, some 35 kilometers to the west of Jakarta, aboard a vehicle belonging to the prosecutor's office.

Scores of journalists covered the every move of the 27-year- old suspect, dubbed the Queen of Ecstasy by the media following her 1996 arrest for storing some 30,000 ecstasy pills.

Attired in a long blue dress and sandals, Zarina emerged from the minibus and entered the prosecutor's office under the glare of TV lights and explosion of camera flashes.

Y.W. Mere, head of the general crimes section of the prosecutor's office, received Zarina and the five police officers.

During a brief meeting, Mere said Enriani Fachruddin and Hasan Madani would prosecute the case.

Enriani then questioned Zarina in Mere's office while Mere examined the evidence submitted by the police.

The man leading the police investigation, Capt. Ilyas Saad from the city police's narcotics unit, explained in detail the evidence seized during the raid on a West Jakarta hotel and apartment complex last month.

During the early morning raid on Nov. 11, police arrested Zarina and nine other suspects in five apartments in the hotel.

Police confiscated 835 ecstasy pills, 51.2 grams of shabu- shabu (crystal methamphetamine), 28 pornographic movies, six bongs and two small scales.

In the apartment in which Zarina was arrested along with her boyfriend, Ahian Santoso, alias Yeye, police seized 0.3 grams of shabu-shabu and four Happy Five tranquilizer pills.

Police listed the evidence in Zarina's case on Monday as one gram of shabu-shabu, four ecstasy pills, tin foil and paraphernalia used to smoke drugs.

Mere said his office had looked over the dossier and decided the case met the requirements for prosecution.

"Our prosecutors have studied the dossier and we will question Zarina and study the available evidence," he said, adding that his office could complete the indictment and file it in the West Jakarta District Court in the next two to three days.

"With the transfer of the defendant and evidence, we have completed all the procedures to bring the case to court," he said, adding that his office might present 10 witnesses during the trial.

After being questioned at the prosecutor's office, Zarina was returned to Tangerang Women's Penitentiary where she must serve out the remainder of the sentence from her 1996 arrest after her conditional release was revoked. She is scheduled for release in October next year. (asa)