Mother Sentenced To Her Child's Marijuana, DPR Calls Justice Must Be Firm But Has A Conscience

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JAKARTA - Commission III of the House of Representatives highlighted the five-year sentence for Asfiyatun (60), the mother of a mobile fried food seller in Surabaya who was sentenced to 5 years in prison for receiving a drug package belonging to her child. For him, the importance of justice is based on conscience.

"It is unfortunate that the crime committed by the child must also be borne by his mother. I understand that justice must be upheld, but we must not forget that justice must also be based on conscience," said Member of Commission III of the DPR RI, Gilang Dhielafararez, Wednesday 2 August.

This case began when Asfiyatun was visited by a person with the initials P who said he ordered a marijuana package from Santoso, who was none other than Asfiyatun's son. Santoso had already languished in the Semarang Class I prison after being involved in a similar case.

Asfiyatun then asked his son to return P. However, Santoso actually sent a package addressed to Asfiyatun's home address and asked the mother to give Rp100 thousand to a man with the initials Pi as wages.

To Asfiyatun, a courier said that the item belonged to Santoso and would be taken the next day. Asfiyatun also agreed to the deposit. However, before the package was delivered, the police first raided the house and secured Asfiyatun.

Asfiyatun's lawyer stated that his deaf client did not know that the child's package contained marijuana. Gilang understood that Asfiyatun's actions had violated the law because he indirectly helped his son's forbidden act.

"But is the instincts of a mother who tries to help her child deserve that long sentence?" he said.

Gilang supports law enforcement against drug trafficking perpetrators. However, he hopes that law enforcers will see from another point of view that actually Asfiyatun is also a victim of his son's crime.

"Law enforcement efforts must be oriented towards justice. But to obtain justice, law enforcement must also not ignore conscience. That what the mother did was wrong, but the 5-year sentence was quite severe with such conditions," said Gilang.

This legislator from the Central Java II electoral district reminded law enforcers to be wise in dealing with cases involving small people. Gilang hopes that law enforcement will not be sharp downwards.

"I hope that law enforcers prioritize human values in dealing with legal cases of small people who really need protection from law enforcers," he said.

Reflecting on this, Gilang encouraged law enforcers to be more sensitive in seeing legal cases. Because it is often found that people are not aware that their actions have violated the law.

"Facing such incidents, it would be better if law enforcement prioritizes protection or guidance to the community," said Gilang.

The member of the House of Representatives Commission in charge of law enforcement affairs also touched on the implementation of Restorative Justice (RJ) for people who are in conflict with the law. Moreover, said Gilang, recently RJ was promoted by law enforcement institutions.

"If it is possible to restore justice, try as much as possible. Especially for parties who are not the main actors like mothers in Surabaya like that," explained the Deputy Chairperson of the DPR BKSAP.

Although it is classified as a new legal product in Indonesia, restorative justice or restorative justice can be applied in light criminal cases. Meanwhile, RJ allows it to be applied in cases of women who are in conflict with the law, child cases, and narcotics.

"As a state of law, we support law enforcement. But law enforcement also needs to have legal benefits for the creation of real justice," concluded Gilang.