Zarina granted early remission to sentence

TANGERANG (JP): With a bright smile and cheerful face, Zarina -- the budding TV actress who was not supposed to end her four- year jail term until November 2000 for her Ecstasy case -- was freed on conditional release on Wednesday.

Accompanied by relatives and lawyers, the 26-year-old, who looked much heavier than when she was arrested in November 1996, left the Tangerang Women's Penitentiary at 10:15 a.m.

Before leaving, she received warm hugs from her former fellow prisoners at the Tangerang Women's Penitentiary.

Some of them helped Zarina to carry her belongings from her cell to the exit gate of the prison.

When the white Mercedes Benz which carried her started to leave the penitentiary's compound, Zarina, alias Zarima Mir, alias Rina, dressed in a white blouse, black trousers, sunglasses and black high-heeled shoes, happily waved to the female prisoners.

As at her trial, her first day of conditional release on Wednesday also lured the attention of dozens of reporters and TV crews. Her every move was greeted with a dozen camera flashes.

About two hours earlier, Zarina -- still in the blue prison uniform plus white stockings and a black handbag -- headed to the local Prosecutors Office with the penitentiary staff to fulfill the administrative procedures for her release.

"Although she was given a conditional release, we'll still keep our eye on her to prevent her from committing another crime," head of the general crime section of the prosecutors office, Pudji Basuki Setiono, said.

Should she commit a new crime during the period of her conditional release, Zarina will have to return to jail to finish the remaining days of her sentence in addition to the term of the new crime, Pudji added.

Her story

The West Jakarta District Court on June 5 last year sentenced Zarina to four years in jail for keeping 29,677 Ecstasy pills at her house in the Taman Alfa Indah housing complex in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta.

The verdict was actually much lighter than the maximum penalty of 15 years ruled by the 1992 Health Law.

Zarina, however, fainted as soon as she heard the sentence and was immediately taken to nearby Harapan Kita cardiac hospital. On the next day, she was rushed to the police hospital from the Pondok Bambu women's correctional center, where she was temporarily detained, in East Jakarta.

She was first apprehended on Aug. 7, 1996 by Tangerang police detectives who found the pills in a safe at her house. After being questioned at the Tangerang Police headquarters for hours, she was then escorted to the Jakarta Police headquarters for further questioning.

It was here where she fooled the detectives by asking their permission to stop at her mother's house, located near her home, to allow her to take a bath. She then managed to escape.

Her escape lead to the dismissal of the then Tangerang Police chief detective Capt. Ade Sutiana, who was also sentenced by a military tribunal to four months and twenty days jail.

Then Tangerang Police chief Lt. Col. Djoko Satrio was replaced.

Zarina was then arrested by Jakarta Police detectives in Houston, USA, on Nov. 4, and was brought home on Nov. 17.

New job

During the trial, she was accompanied by some of the country's top lawyers, such as Amir Syamsudin, Henry Yosodiningrat, Otto Cornelis Kaligis and Nurhasyim Ilyas.

On April 17 this year, Kaligis wrote a letter to the Directorate General of Correctional Centers, asking the latter to allow his client to work at his office under his responsibility, as well as to give Zarina conditional release.

In response, head of Jakarta's Provincial Office of Justice, Sjarbani Sabri, instructed the head of the Women's Penitentiary, Susy Marliana, on Aug. 12 to allow Zarina to immediately start work at Kaligis' law office on Jl. Majapahit in Central Jakarta.

Under an agreement between Kaligis and Marliana signed on Aug. 24, Zarina started to work at Kaligis' law office the next day with a monthly salary of Rp 500,000, 21 percent of which she should transfer to the penitentiary, 14 percent to the Directorate General of Correctional Centers and 15 percent to the state.

On Monday, Minister of Justice Muladi issued a decree for Zarina's conditional release. The decree was signed by the director general of Correctional Centers, Thahir Abdullah, on behalf of the minister.

When asked to comment on her life in prison, Zarina said that she had learned a lot of valuable things, including discipline and religious matters.

"I'm happy," said Zarina, who plans to continue her job at Kaligis' office. (41/leo/bsr)