Despite the threat of the death penalty for drug dealers in Indonesia, criminals continue to risk their lives by bringing narcotics into the country in search of a big pay day.
Police say Yeung Man-fung, a 19-year-old Hong Kong citizen, was storing 520,000 pills of ecstasy in September 2015 (just four months after the last round of executions that took place in Indonesia) inside a room at the Hotel Ibis Mangga Dua Selatan.
Yeung’s trial began in the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday afternoon and, unsurprisingly, the prosecutors are asking for the death penalty.
According to court records, Yeung had previously worked as a chef in Hong Kong but prosecutors say he later became part of an international drug syndicate as proven by his travels over the past two years.
Yeung’s 47-year-old mother attended the trial and through a translator she told the media that said she could not believe the charges against her son.
“My child has done nothing wrong, why is the prosecutor charging him?” she said, as quoted by Tribunnews.
However, she also made it clear that if her son was somehow guilty, she would not take it well.
“If my son was a drug dealer, I want him to immediately be shot dead and I’ll take his ashes home.”
She added, “Not only that, if my son was involved with drugs, I’d rather kill myself. It would be to clear the good name of my family.”
The case against Yeung may not be open and shut. While police claimed that they had two eyewitnesses who saw Yeung store the drugs in the hotel room, when those witnesses took the stand yesterday neither would confirm that they had actually seen the narcotics.
Yeung’s trial is set to resume today with the prosecutor’s rebuttal to the defense’s case.
Words: Coconuts Jakarta
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