Representing her father Husein Sitorus, who is sentenced to death for the possession of marijuana in Malaysia, an Indonesian woman appealed to the Malaysian Higher Court to revise the sentence because the evidence showed he was not proven guilty in the case.
Siti Aisyah Sitorus accompanied by Sebastian Cha, a lawyer provided by the Indonesian Embassy, member of the Regional Representatives Council Parlindungan Purba and legal staff of the Batubara District, North Sumatra, filed the appeal at the Shah Alam Higher Court, Selangor, Malaysia.
After filing the request, Aisyah then visited Husein who was jailed at the prison in Selangor.
Husein was sentenced to death row Thursday after the district court in Shah Alam found the defendant guilty of trafficking 148 kilograms of marijuana to the neighbor country in 2004.
Husein Sitorus was a boat captain of a regular ferry with daily routes from Medan to Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia. At the end of 2004, a box containing 148 gram of marijuana was spotted abandoned at the boat while the Malaysian police held regular check up.
Husein was then suspected as the owner of the box since there was no one who claimed it. He was then brought to a local court, which sentenced him to death.
Malaysia is known for its harsh narcotics law. Along with Thailand and Singapore, it has been known as a golden triangle for narcotics syndicates in Southeast Asia.
Commenting on the case, Parlindungan Purba said he was optimistic that the higher court would likely take other options than death sentence as he acknowledged that right now the Indonesian Embassy had been able to present a witness who would speak in Husein's defense.
"The witness, Sarnawi, was one of the passengers, who will give an official statement regarding his knowledge about the box containing the marijuana," Parlindungan said as quoted by Antara news service.
"According to Sarnawi, the box was never belonged to Husein in the first place."
He added that Sarnawi, a resident of Batubara district in North Sumatra, would also confirm that he had testified that the box actually belonged to someone else other than Husein.
"A stranger then entrusted the box to Husein, who never realized what was inside the box at the time it was given to him."
Sebastian Cha said also that up to this date the Malaysian police had also failed to find Husein's finger prints at the box. Besides, he added, the result of Husein's urine test had also proved he was not a drug abuser.
So far, Malaysia has imposed the death row to a great number of Indonesians for narcotics ownership.
