P

rosecutors in Sukabumi, West Java, are seeking the death penalty for two Iranians, Mostafa Moraqdalivand, 32, and Seiyed Hashem, 36, who were caught in February in possession of 40.1 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine.

'€œThey are at risk of facing the death penalty,'€ head of the general crimes division at the Cibadak Prosecutor'€™s Office, Yuris Rawando, said after the first hearing of Hashem'€™s trial at the Cibadak District Court in Pelabuhanratu, Sukabumi regency, on Tuesday.

He said the defendants had been charged under Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics.

The two defendants are being tried separately. The initial trial session for Hashem was presided over by Tafsir Sembiring, alongside two other judges, AA Oka Parama Budita and Jan Oktavianus.

Reading from the indictment, chief prosecutor Ni Made Wardani said Hashem and Moraqdalivand had visited the Pelabuhanratu Nature Reserve on Feb. 26 this year to inspect their stash of contraband.

She said officers from the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) then turned up and arrested them.

Both defendants deny the charges against them.

During the trial hearing, Hashem said he was invited by Moraqdalivand, to whom he had been introduced in Tehran, Iran, to join him on a trip to Pelabuhan Ratu. He said he set off from an apartment leased by Moraqdalivand on Jl. Thamrin in Jakarta to meet the latter, who was waiting at the Bayu Amarta Hotel in Pelabuhan Ratu.

'€œI don'€™t understand. I thought Moraqdalivand would help me leave for Australia by boat from Pelabuhan Ratu,'€ Hashem said through his interpreter, Fahmi Jufri.

The two defendants, both of whom wore white long-sleeved shirts, delivered differing testimony. Hashem said the drugs were owned by Moraqdalivand, while the latter said he was totally unaware about the drugs stashed at the nature reserve.

Moraqdalivand said he had gone to the scene as instructed by a colleague named Haji, also from Iran, who told him to locate a '€œtreasure'€. He claimed he was only helping his colleague, who got the information about the treasure from someone called Jalal Husen.

'€œI was asked to check the information given to Haji by Jalal Husen. Haji then asked me to make a note of the location,'€ he said in court.

Wardani also indicted them for planning to send the drugs to New Zealand.

Meanwhile, according to information from the BNN, which was released following the two men'€™s arrests, Moraqdalivand had earlier visited the stash spot alone by car on Feb. 9. He had been involved in a traffic accident at the reserve, which attracted the attention of onlookers.

The BNN has accused Moraqdalivand of burying the 40.1 kg of crystal meth in three bags after the accident.

Moraqdalivand allegedly asked Hashem to accompany him to Pelabuhanratu by motorcycle to check the drugs'€™ location. BNN officers caught the two red-handed when they returned to the site to retrieve the contraband.

The two accused allegedly entered the country via Bali.

A number of other foreigners have also been convicted of drug offenses in the country.

In March this year, the Batam District Court sentenced two Malaysians, Mohammad Sollehudin bin Anuar and Azmee bin Johari, and Singaporean Ong Beng Song alias Ong alias Edy to death for smuggling 168,987 ecstasy pills. The trio smuggled the drugs from Malaysia into Indonesia via Batam, Riau Islands.

In August, the Denpasar District Court sentenced Stephen Henri Lubbe, 58, a South African who was arrested while attempting to smuggle 1.49 kilograms of crystal meth into Bali, to 15 years in prison.