September 2
INDONESIA:
Nigerian drug smuggler sent to death row
The Tangerang District Court handed down another death sentence on
Wednesday; to a Nigerian citizen, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, 39, who was
convicted of smuggling 1.2 kilograms of heroin into the country from
Pakistan in December.
The court granted the prosecutors' call for the death penalty but did not
fine him the requested Rp 50 million (US$5,434.78).
Clad in a bright blue shirt and dark pants, Nwolise listened to the
verdict expressionlessly. He told his lawyer, Martina Mona Riang Lubuk, he
would appeal the verdict.
Nwolise is the 28th drug trafficker sentenced to death by the court since
January 2000. None of the traffickers sentenced to death in Tangerang have
been executed and 6 have had their death sentences commuted to between 15
and 20-year jail terms after they successfully appealed to higher courts.
Others are still attempting to get lesser sentences by lodging case
reviews with the Supreme Court or by seeking a presidential pardon.
Presiding judge Soeprapto and members Benar Sihombing and Yosep Ziraluo
convicted the defendant, a resident of Lagos, Nigeria, under Article 82 of
the Law No. 22/1997 on drugs for transporting the heroin into the country.
The article carries a maximum sentence of death.
Soeprapto said the panel of judges did not find any mitigating factors
that would affect the sentencing.
"The defendant's act of smuggling the drug would destroy the lives of
thousands of young people and tarnish Indonesia's international image," he
said.
Compounding factors were that the defendant showed a fake passport to
immigration officers, lied to the police when being questioned and was
known to be a member of a drug syndicate, Soeprapto said.
The tough sentence was in contrast to an earlier lesser sentence request
from the prosecutors, who had said Nwolise had been cooperative during the
investigation.
Prosecutor Eben Silalahi said Second Insp. Dedy Murti at the National
Police Headquarters had received a tip-off Nwolise would transport the
heroin on a plane from Pakistan to Jakarta via Bangkok on Dec. 21, 2003.
Police officers at the airport approached the defendant when he left the
terminal and asked for his identification. The defendant handed down a
passport bearing the name Josphat Sibanda.
The officers made a body search of the defendant and became suspicious
when they found his stomach was hard and he was perspiring.
He was taken to a hospital for an X-ray and the result confirmed his
stomach was filled with hard objects. Officers then gave the defendant
medicine to make him defecate.
Over 36 hours, he produced 66 white capsules from his stomach. Later tests
confirmed the capsules contained heroin.
Nwolise testified he had been asked to pass on the drug to Afianyi in
Jakarta by a man called "John" and was promised US$1,500 for his services.
He pled guilty to the charge of trafficking.
Both John and Afianyi are still at large.
(source: Jakarta Post)
JAPAN:
Ex-boxer on death row for 38 years appeals for retrial
Defense lawyers for a former professional boxer on death row filed an
appeal for a retrial with the Supreme Court on Wednesday after the Tokyo
High Court rejected his request last Friday, they said.
Iwao Hakamada, 68, was sentenced to death for the murder of a soybean
paste company executive, his wife and their 2 children, who were killed in
Shizuoka Prefecture in June 1966 when Hakamada was an employee of the
company. The family's home was set on fire and about 200,000 yen in cash
was stolen.
(source: Kyodo News)
