Judge Sentenced To 20 Years In Courier Prison 52,561 Ecstasy In Banjarmasin

BANJARMASIN - Chairman of the Panel of Judges at the Banjarmasin District Court, South Kalimantan, Suwandy sentenced the defendant Taufikurahman alias Upik to 20 years in prison, a courier carrying 52,561 pills of ecstasy in Banjarmasin.

"In addition to the 20-year prison sentence, the defendant was sentenced to a fine of Rp. 1 billion and if the fine was not paid, it was replaced with imprisonment for 3 months," said Suwandy when reading the verdict, during a verdict hearing at the Banjarmasin District Court, South Kalimantan, Wednesday, March 12.

In their consideration, the panel of judges stated that the defendant had been legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing a crime without rights or against the law of offering to sell, sell, buy, accept, become an intermediary in buying and selling, exchanging or handing over Narcotics Category I in the form of non-plants weighing more than 5 grams, as regulated and threatened with violating Article 114 paragraph (2) RI Law No. 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics.

However, due to various considerations, the judge disagreed with the demands of the Public Prosecutor (JPU) who previously demanded the death penalty.

The judge said that the defendant Upik was just a courier and got wages from the person who told him.

On this decision, the defendant stated that he accepted the verdict, while the Public Prosecutor's Team Masrita expressed his thoughts.

The defendant Upik was arrested by a team led by the Head of Sub-Directorate 3 of the Narcotics Directorate of the South Kalimantan Police AKBP Ade Harri Sistiawan on September 5, 2024, on Jalan Brigadier General Hasan Basri Banjarmasin.

When arrested, Upik carried 52,561 ecstasy pills and powder or ecstasy flakes in the amount of thousands of grams.

Officers also developed their homes and managed to find 507 ecstasy pills and a number of ecstasy fragments and small packages of methamphetamine.