Prosecution Seeks Death for Four Men in Aceh Meth Case
Banda Aceh. Prosecutors in Aceh are seeking death sentences against four men caught in possession of almost 80 kilograms of methamphetamine.
The four men, hailing from East Aceh district, were identified as Samsul Bahri (36), Hamdani (35), Abdullah (36), and Hasan Basri (35).
The men allegedly were involved in an international smuggling operation, shipping meth from Malaysia to be sold in Indonesia.
The judge at the Banda Aceh District Court said the men's lawyers would have two weeks to prepare their defense.
President Joko Widodo has made cracking down on drugs one of his policy priorities, even resuming executions of drug convicts earlier this year.
On Thursday, however, a senior minister in his cabinet announced a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in order to focus on the economy.
Last Friday, a drug lord from Hong Kong was sentenced to death for possession of more than 860 kilograms of meth, after one of Indonesia’s biggest drug busts in years, in January.
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