T

he West Jakarta District Court on Thursday sentenced five members of a Hong Kong drug syndicate to prison terms, including some life terms.

'€œCheung Hon Ming is found guilty of attempting to smuggle 862 kilograms of methamphetamine from China to Indonesia. The court orders him to serve 20 years in prison,'€ presiding judge Lamsana Sipayung said.

Aside from Hong Kong national Cheung, the panel of judges also sentenced Indonesian Syarifuddin to 18 years'€™ imprisonment and handed down lifetime sentences to three other Hong Kong nationals: Siu Cheuk Fung, Tan See Ting and Tam Siu Liung.

The sentences, however, were lighter than those demanded by public prosecutors Teguh Ananto and Leila Qadria, who last week demanded the death penalty for all syndicate members, including the ring leader, Wong Chi Ping, for violating Article 114, Paragraph 2, of Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics.

In January, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) busted Wong and eight others at a wholesale market in Kalideres, West Jakarta, for possessing shabu-shabu (methamphetamine).

Wong was alleged to have masterminded the plan to smuggle shabu-shabu from Hong Kong to Indonesia, packing the drugs into coffee containers and covering them with coffee.

In a separate trial, lawyers of Wong and three other defendants, Indonesians Sujardi, Ahmad Salim Wijaya and Andika, read out their clients'€™ defense plea, demanding the panel of judges refuse prosecutors'€™ request to hand down death penalties.

'€œThe defendants have said they regret their actions. They are not the ring leaders,'€ lawyer Windu Wijaya said.

He added that his clients had not been involved in any crime before and had not sold any of the shabu-shabu by the time the police arrested them and had not, therefore, negatively affected the public.

Moreover, he added, each member of the syndicate member had played a different role, and so the death penalty should not be applied to all of them.

Separately, lawyer Hazmin A. said that the four defendants would hear their verdict on Friday.

The trial is the eighth involving heavyweight drug cases this year.

Previously, the Siak District Court in Riau in Januar sentenced to death two people, AR Ibrahim, a 48-year-old resident of Bandung, and M. Jamil, 32, a resident of North Jakarta, for possession of 8 tons of marijuana.

The Lubuk Pakam District Court in Deli Serdang regency meanwhile sentenced four defendants '€” Muhajir, Fadli Fauzi, Mursyal and Zulkifli '€” to life imprisonment for trafficking 4.2 tons of marijuana to Jakarta in August. (agn)