Two Indonesians spared
from death penalty in Malaysia
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Sat, May 09 2015, 8:05 PM
Two
Indonesians spared recently from the death penalty by a Malaysian court
are slated to return soon to Indonesia, the Foreign Ministry stated on
Saturday.
Maharani and Surya Darma Putra were freed after the
judges of Putrajaya Federal Court, Malaysia, rejected the capital
punishment sought by the prosecutor in a drug distribution case on
Thursday.
“With that verdict, the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala
Lumpur is processing all the documents for Maharani and Surya Darma
Putra to return to Indonesia,” the embassy said in a statement as quoted
by Antara news agency.
Maharani and Surya were detained in an
apartment in Ampang Hilir, Kuala Lumpur, in June 2009 for possession of
drugs, namely 1,170.9 grams of heroin and 198.35 grams of morphine.
A Pakistani named Naseem Haider and an Indian named Sunita were arrested along with the pair.
In the first stage of the trial, the four were convicted of drug distribution and were sentenced to death.
However,
the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected the prosecutor’s demand due to a
failure to show proof of the ownership of the drugs and the intentions
of the four people.
The prosecutor then proceeded to appeal at the
Court of Appeal yet the court reached a similar decision to the Kuala
Lumpur High Court.
The Putrajaya Federal Court then strengthened the decision, to finally free the two Indonesian nationals.
A
total of 165 Indonesians are facing capital punishment for various
crimes with seven of them spared from the death penalty this year. Of
the 165, 48 were already indicted with binding law.
So far, a total of 217 Indonesians have been spared from the death penalty since 2009. (fsu) (++++)
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