/ 6 September 2001

MALAWIAN SENT DOWN ‘FOR LIFE’ IN INDONESIA

AN Indonesian court has sentenced a Malawian to life imprisonment for smuggling one kilogram of heroin into the country. The district court of Tanggerang, west of here, sentenced Namaona Denis (35) after it found him guilty of attempting to smuggle the narcotics through Jakarta’s Sukarno-Hatta international airport on April 15, the Jakarta Post reported. Denis, who arrived on a flight from Karachi in Pakistan, was checked by custom officials who became suspicious because he was nervous. A medical examination at the airport showed he had swallowed 73 capsules heroin, which were in his stomach. The defendant told the court he was promised $3 000 from a man named Haifan at a hotel in Pakistan to deliver the heroin to Abidjan in West Africa. The same court last month handed down death penalties to two foreigners, a Nigerian and a Zimbabwean for attempting to smuggle 600 and 850 grams of heroin each. – Sapa