Zarina sentenced to three years

JAKARTA (JP): The West Jakarta District Court sentenced on Thursday former television actress Zarina Mirafsur, alias Zarina, to three years in prison and fined her Rp 7.5 million (US$882) for possessing one gram of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) on Oct. 1 last year.

Zarina, who was sentenced by the same court in 1997 to four years imprisonment for a drug offense but freed on parole in October 1998, could only manage a small smile when the district court declared her guilty.

"The defendant knows that drugs could destroy a whole generation. The court has given a whole lot of consideration to this case," presiding judge Sri Handojo told the hearing.

Handojo said Zarina had violated Article 62 of Law 5/1997 on psychotropic substances, which carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.

Separately, Zarina's father Mirafsur Khan told The Jakarta Post he would soon visit the Ombudsman National Committee to lodge a complaint against judge Sri Handojo for his "misjudgment".

"Budiman Pudjianto, who was with Zarina in the Oct. 1, 1999, arrest in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta, received only a few months in jail, while my daughter got three years. It is just preposterous," Mirafsur said.

The jail sentence handed down to the defendant was lighter than the four-year jail term earlier demanded by prosecutors.

Zarina's lawyers said that she would appeal to the Jakarta High Court. (ylt)