Ex-member Of The Palembang DPRD Bandar Narcotics Sued The Death Penalty

Former member of the DPRD Palembang City, South Sumatra (Sumsel) East Doni (DOK. ANTARA)

PALEMBANG - Former member of the DPRD Kota Palembang, South Sumatra (Sumsel), Doni Timur (30) and four other defendants, were being charged with the death penalty by the prosecutor. East Doni et al are believed to be involved in trafficking drugs across countries.

Prosecutor of the Palembang Public Prosecution Service, Indah Kumala Dewi, said that the five defendants, Doni, Alamsyah, Ahmad Najmi Ermawan, Yati Suharman, and Mulyadi were proven to have four kilograms of methamphetamine narcotics and 21,000 ecstasy pills.

"Demand that the panel of judges adjudicate and impose the death penalty," said Indah reading out the demands of the five defendants' files during a virtual trial at the Palembang District Court as quoted by Antara, Thursday, March 4.

The prosecutor assessed that the five defendants violated Article 114 paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 132 paragraph (1) of Law Number 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics, and there were no matters that lightened the sentence for the defendant.

Previously in the indictment the five defendants were only known as cross-provincial narcotics dealers. However, the facts in the trial revealed that the defendants were involved in the Indonesian-Malaysian narcotics network.

However, specifically for the defendant Doni, the prosecutor intensified his demands because Doni was a member of the Palembang City DPRD when he was arrested by BNN. Whereas Doni should have set a good example as a community leader.

At the trial chaired directly by the Head of the Palembang Bongbongan Silaban District Court, the five defendants will deliver their plea or defense on Thursday, March 18.

East Doni was arrested by a joint BNN team on September 29, 2020 at his shophouse on Jalan Riau, Kelurahan 26 Ilir Barat I, Palembang.

Doni's arrest was the result of the development of a case from a shabu-shabu dealer from Cilacap named Mulyadi who was arrested earlier in Medan. Doni was arrested after the joint team first caught his subordinates who were transacting.

BNN arrested a total of six people in the case, but one of the defendants, Joko Zulkarnain, escaped while undergoing treatment at the Bhayangkara Palembang Hospital in January 2021, and is still at large, so the trial is postponed.