Indonesian Citizens Freed From Death Penalty In Malaysia Return To Bengkayang

Illustration. (ANTARA)

The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia (KJRI) in Kuching, Malaysia, has repatriated an Indonesian citizen (WNI) from Jagoi Babang, Bengkayang, West Kalimantan, with the initials AS (37) who was free from the death penalty for drug cases in Malaysia. "We also accompanied the repatriation of the woman from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, to Indonesia. It is known that the person concerned has served a six-year prison sentence at Puncak Borneo, Kuching, Sarawak prison," said Consul of the Indonesian Consulate General in Kuching Raden Sigit Witjaksono in Sanggau, West Kalimantan, Antara, Friday, August 11. Sigit said that the US had previously married a Sarawak resident and lived in Serikin Village. Then, in August 2017, the Sarawak Police conducted a raid on the house where AS and her husband lived. During the raid, the police found drugs and the US was accused of participating in storing the illicit goods in his house. However, the US argued that the drug belonged to her husband, who had been arrested by the police. The Kuching Sarawak Court has made a lawsuit against the US for violating the 1945 Dangerous Deed (UU) Article 39B, namely the demand for the death penalty if found guilty. "On these demands, we, from the Indonesian Consulate General in Kuching, have provided legal assistance and assigned the appointed lawyer, Ranbir Singh Sangha; and after a two-year trial process, in May 2019, the Kuching Sarawak Court reduced the demand for the death penalty to a prison sentence of nine years to the US," explained Sigit. The US then received a reduction in remission so that it served a prison sentence of six years starting from its arrest in August 2017. On August 9, 2023, the US was picked up by the Indonesian Consulate General in Kuching from the Semuja Prison Depot Imigresen Sarawak to be repatriated to Indonesia.

"As was returned to Indonesia via the Entikong border and handed over to the Indonesian citizen repatriation task force team in good health and good health to be returned to his family in Bengkayang, West Kalimantan," said Sigit.