Remember Masaru Kawada, the 73-year-old Japanese citizen who was given a life sentence last week for trying to smuggle 2.35 kg of crystal methamphetamines into Indonesia?
Just after the harsh sentence was handed down, Kawada’s lawyer said he was preparing to file an appeal against the verdict.
But it looks like Kawada has become resigned to his fate. His lawyer now says the elderly Japanese grandfather no longer wants to appeal out of fear that a higher Indonesian court may actually end up giving up a higher sentence (ie the death penalty) if he were to attempt to challenge the verdict.
He apparently made the decision after hearing advice from his lawyer, Syusvida Lastri, the Japanese Consulate and prison officials.
“We said that a higher court might give him a lighter sentence, but it might also give him a heavier sentence,” Lastri told the Japan Times.
Lastri and other had good reason to believe that a harsher sentence was a possibility. Indonesian judges routinely give heavier sentences during both trials and appeals. At Kawada’s trial, prosecutors asked for a 16-year-sentence but the judge in the case decided unilaterally to give the 73-year-old a life sentence instead.
Indonesian national Zainal Abidin, who was executed earlier this year for allegedly smuggling 47kg of marijuana, originally received a 15 year prison sentence for his crime but unbelievably had that sentence increased to the death penalty when he tried to appeal his case.
In November of last year, Kawada was arrested at Padang’s Minangkabau International Airport airport when customs officials found 2.35 kg of crystal methamphetamines hidden in his bag. Kawada maintains that he was not aware there were any drugs in his bag when he was caught. He flew in to Padang from Macau via Kuala Lumpur and said he met a Chinese woman in Macau who asked him to bring a bag to her friend in Padang.
