Zarina home for questioning

JAKARTA (JP): TV actress Zarina returned to Jakarta from the United States yesterday to face police investigation, which she managed to duck four months ago.

The 24-year-old Zarina, who is wanted in connection with 29,677 Ecstasy pills found in her West Jakarta home, arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport after a long journey from Houston, Texas.

She was escorted by Indonesian police agents and her Indonesian lawyers. Eyewitnesses said she was not handcuffed.

Instead, she received treatment befitting an actress: she left the airport in a green BMW.

She was taken to the Jakarta Police Command, the place she was supposed to have been taken to on the day of her escape, but which she managed to avoid after duping her police escorts.

There were no mistakes this time. She really did arrive at police headquarters.

If anyone was duped, it was the hordes of reporters and photographers who had waited in the arrival hall of the Soekarno- Hatta Airport since morning.

Zarina and her escorts disembarked from Garuda Indonesia's flight GA 801 from Los Angeles and were cleared through a special immigration channel. They left through a special exit, to be immediately driven to the Jakarta Police command.

However, she entertained some questions by the few reporters who accompanied her on her flight home. Some boarded the flight in Houston, others in Los Angeles, where she boarded the Garuda plane, and a few others in Denpasar, where it made a brief stopover.

"I can't say much at this stage," she told an Antara reporter on the flight from Denpasar. "I'm leaving everything to Him above (God), and hope to get over this quickly."

Zarina said she felt really "hit" by the media treatment of her.

"To be honest, I'm really shocked, especially by the media's excessive exposure of my case.

"I'm very sad and distressed," she said.

When reporters asked Zarina to write down her feelings on a piece of paper, she simply scribbled: "Once again, I want to apologize to everyone for my mistakes."

Earlier, when she arrived in Denpasar, she said "I'm so glad to be able to return to my homeland."

Although not handcuffed, the Indonesian police agents did not let her wander too far at Denpasar airport.

The dark glasses failed to conceal her identity, and she drew the attention of other passengers in the transit lounge as well as airport and airline staff and duty free shop assistants.

Zarina's face has been on the front page of many local newspapers as well as magazine covers in the past week or so since news broke of her arrest in Houston. Wearing a cream top, a brown and green blazer, and a pair of blue jeans, her long black hair, with streaks of brown and red, and her slim figure gave her away.

She declined to discuss the allegation of Ecstasy trafficking with reporters, but stressed that she hoped everything would be finished quickly so that she could get back to her routine activities, including the possibility of returning to the film industry, Antara reported.

Since the Aug. 7 arrest, Zarina has insisted the 29,677 Ecstasy pills did not belong to her, and said her house had been used by a friend while she was abroad.

Her arresting officers disclosed then that she tried to bribe and sweet-talk her way out of being investigated. She managed to dupe her police escorts a few days later and flee.

On Nov. 4, she was arrested by U.S. immigration authorities, who acted on a tip from the Indonesian police. Arrested on charges of overstaying her visa, she agreed to leave voluntarily and therefore avoid prosecution in Houston.

In Houston, she was reportedly aided by her sister and her American brother-in-law, who works for the Indonesian consulate general.

Police say they plan to prosecute her for trafficking in Ecstasy, under the 1992 Health Law which bans the distribution of dangerous drugs without official permits. If found guilty, she faces a maximum of 15 years imprisonment. (27/bsr/emb)