Zarina to be charged with trafficking Ecstasy

PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata said yesterday that Zarina, the Ecstasy-case suspect recently apprehended in Houston, USA, would be tried for drug trafficking.

He said police investigations revealed the 24-year-old woman was trafficking the 29,677 Ecstasy pills found in her home in west Jakarta three months ago.

Indonesia has no law on Ecstasy. Any Ecstasy-related cases are dealt with by the existing 1992 Health Law, which deals with, among other things, dangerous drugs.

According to article 79 of the law, anyone found distributing dangerous drugs faces a maximum jail term of 15 years or a fine of up to Rp 300 million.

"Preliminary investigations showed Zarina had tried to distribute the pills which did not belong to her," Hamami said after attending the 51st anniversary of the elite Mobile Brigade police corps yesterday.

National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo had earlier said Zarina was probably an Ecstasy syndicate's new dealer.

The Health Law does not prohibit the possession of dangerous drugs.

Ecstasy is considered a dangerous drug and a bill on psychotropic drugs is still being deliberated.

Article 58 of the bill says anyone caught illegally producing or distributing, exporting or importing psychotropic drugs will be face up to 20 years jail or fines of up to Rp 500 million (US$212,765).

Zarina, who is in Houston waiting to be tried for U.S. immigration violations, has made headlines in local newspapers since her escape from a police escort in August.

She is expected to return to Jakarta next week to face the drug trafficking charges.

Hamami had earlier expressed his disappointment over court verdicts meted out to Ecstasy distributors. "Both sentence demands and court verdicts should have been higher," he said, responding to reports that most Ecstasy-related case defendants got less than one year in jail.

On Wednesday a state prosecutor asked the Tangerang District Court to sentence a defendant to one year in jail and fine her Rp 3 million for trafficking 9,000 Ecstasy pills.

Last week the same court sentenced a businessman to eight months jail for attempting to traffic more than 700 Ecstasy pills.

Hamami had earlier said he wanted members of the House of Representatives working on the bill on psychotropic drugs to introduce a minimum penalty for Ecstasy offenders.

"Charging Ecstasy offenders with a maximum term has only brought comfort to them because they know they could be jailed for as little as one day. A minimum penalty is needed," Hamami said. (bsr)