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tinerant trader Usep Cahyono bin Asep Saipudin, 20, faced an arraignment hearing Thursday to answer charges of drug possession that he insists were fabricated by the police.

At the hearing at the North Jakarta District Court, Usep, who usually works the cut at the Kampung Bandan train station in North Jakarta, was charged with possessing 3 grams of marijuana.

Similar cases of drug possession, in which the suspects have alleged police falsification of evidence, include those of trash picker Chairul Saleh Nasution.

Chairul is currently standing trial at the Central Jakarta District Court for possession of marijuana.

Susandhi "Aan" Sukatma, on trial at the South Jakarta District Court for possession of Ecstasy, claims Maluku Police officers, working well out of their jurisdiction, planted the pill on him.

Vendor Hamseh bin Nakuri is another suspect whose case is still under investigation.

Usep was arrested on Jan. 20 at around 4 p.m. at Kampung Bandan.

He claims a man had come up asking to borrow his lighter. When the man unzipped his jacket, a Rp 50,000 bill and a folded-up piece of newspaper dropped out, he says.

"The man told Usep to pick up the money and the package, and when Usep handed them over to him, he pulled Usep's arm and pinned him from behind," defense lawyer Maju Posko Simbolon told The Jakarta Post.

The man then called over three others lurking nearby and forced Usep to confess to owning the items, the defense claims.

They then took Usep to a car and drove him to the North Jakarta Police headquarters.

"On their way, they continued assaulting Usep, causing him to cough up blood several times, and continued forcing him to admit to possessing the bubonic chronic in the newspaper," Maju Posko said.

Once at the police station, he went on, two officers grilled Usep in an interrogation room and made him reiterate his claims to the sticky icky, which this time he refused to do.

"In the end the police wrote up a dossier and made him sign it without reading it to him," Maju Posko said.

After signing, Usep was placed into custody.

In their plea Thursday, the defense team said the case against Usep was flawed in several ways, as demonstrated by the use of excessive force during his arrest and the absence of a legal counsel during Usep's questioning by police.

However, prosecutors Saida Hotmaria and Eka Nugraha moved for the defense plea to struck from the record and for the case to proceed.

Also at the arraignment, defense lawyers sought to have Usep released from custody, citing his poor health.

They claimed Usep had suffered chest pains since the assault during his arrest.

Presiding judge Ahmad Sukandar postponed the trial to April 8, when the court will address the various pleas made during the arraignment.

National Police Commission member Adnan Pandu Praja said the increase in the number of cases where suspects were alleging trumped-up charges showed that a serious overhaul was badly needed within the police force, and in the detective division in particular.

"This increase in falsified charges might also be a result of police officers trying to reach their quota of cases to hand over to the Attorney General's Office," he said, adding that drug procession charges were the easiest kind to frame unsuspecting people for.