Indonesia: Cop at Center of 13-Kilo Meth Bust Won’t Be Fired Until After Conviction

Meth bust by BNN agents in Indonesia (File photo)

Jakarta. Police in East Java say they will fire an officer accused of involvement in trafficking 13 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine – but only if he is convicted of the offense.

Insp. Gen. Anas Yusuf, the provincial police chief, said there would be “no leniency” for the suspect, identified only by the initials A.L.

“Once there is legal certainty” – meaning a conviction by a court – “we will immediately hand down a punishment” – dismissal – “through an ethics tribunal,” he said in Surabaya on Wednesday as quoted by Tempo.

A.L., a member of the police force in neighboring Sidoarjo district, was arrested last month in a series of busts that netted 13 kilograms of crystal meth. A.L. claimed to have obtained the drugs from an inmate at Surabaya’s Medaeng Penitentiary, but the prison warden has dismissed the allegation as unfounded and an attempt to pass the blame.

A.L.’s case is the latest in a litany of drug crimes allegedly committed by law enforcement officers, including prison guards.

Two prison guards, Dedy Romadi and Bayu Anggit Permana, were arrested in separate cases last month for trafficking in crystal meth, increasingly the drug of choice among Indonesian users.

Bayu, who worked at Batu Penitentiary on the prison island of Nusakambangan, off the Central Java coast, was arrested in mid-May in possession of 364 grams of crystal meth that he claimed to have gotten from an inmate on the island – the same location where eight drug convicts, seven of them foreign nationals, were killed by firing squad on April 29.

Dedy, from Bandung’s Banceuy prison for drug offenders, was arrested at a Central Jakarta mall on May 22 while allegedly carrying out a drug transaction. He subsequently led investigators to a stash of more than 16 kilograms of crystal meth and 778 ecstasy pills.

He was fired from the corrections department on June 1, but bizarrely allowed to retain his perks as a civil servant, including lifetime pension and health insurance.

Another prison guard, Imron from Central Jakarta’s Cipinang Penitentiary, was fired this past Monday and stripped of all his benefits for allegedly aiding in the trafficking of crystal meth by notorious drug kingpin Freddy Budiman, who was serving a death sentence at the prison. Freddy was subsequently moved to a prison on Nusakambangan, where he is reportedly still running his trafficking ring.

Drug seizures are common at prisons on Nusakambangan, where officials have a history for being complicit in allowing prisoners to set up meth labs.

Source: Jakarta Globe, June 10, 2015

Report an error, an omission: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

François Mitterrand, the Justice Minister Who Sent 45 Men to the Guillotine

The socialist president celebrated for abolishing the death penalty in France sent 45 condemned men to the guillotine when he was Minister of Justice. In French political history, François Mitterrand is the father of the historic victory of May 1981. He remains associated with one of the greatest moral laws of the Fifth Republic: the definitive end of capital executions, carried through with Robert Badinter in the autumn of 1981.

Texas | Jury recommends death penalty for man convicted of killing San Benito police lieutenant

A Cameron County jury recommended the death penalty for Rogelio Martinez for killing a San Benito police lieutenant during a police chase in Brownsville. Martinez stared forward as the judge announced the recommendation. Lt. Milton Resendez's family told Martinez in court that their lives will never be the same. Resendez's wife and siblings walked past cameras and declined to speak with reporters. Inside the courtroom, where no audio or video recording was allowed, Resendez's sister Jackie raised her voice at Martinez during impact statements.

Alabama | Brian Martin sentenced to death in killing of Sheffield Sgt. Nick Risner

Brian Lansing Martin was sentenced to death Monday for killing Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner, whose death prompted Alabama lawmakers to restrict early-release credits for inmates convicted of killing someone with a deadly weapon. A Colbert County judge formally imposed the sentence Oct. 26, following a jury’s unanimous recommendation in September, WAFF reported. “Today’s sentence represents justice and accountability for the murder of Sergeant Nick Risner,” Colbert County District Attorney Hal Hughston said in a statement quoted by the station.

Florida | Bunnell man sentenced to death for fatally stabbing wife outside their home in 2024

A Flagler County judge sentenced Jermaine Mandell Williams Sr. to death Monday for stabbing his wife outside their Bunnell home in 2024. Williams, 34, was convicted of 1st-degree murder in July. Jurors deliberated about 20 minutes before finding him guilty and later voted 11-1 to recommend the death penalty. The attack happened Aug. 2, 2024. Surveillance video and testimony showed Williams went inside the home, returned with an 8-inch chef’s knife and attacked his wife, Yolonda Charmaine Williams, in the street, according to court and prosecution accounts. She was stabbed 19 to 20 times and later died at a hospital.

Indiana governor rejects brain scans for death row inmate ahead of execution

Gov. Mike Braun is still weighing Jeffrey Weisheit’s clemency request, however. Gov. Mike Braun’s administration will not allow death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit to undergo additional brain scans before his scheduled execution next week. The decision follows weeks of legal efforts by his attorneys to obtain additional medical evidence for his clemency case. Braun’s general counsel, Stephanie Flittner, met with Weisheit’s legal team Wednesday to discuss the testing and his pending clemency request.

Medical experts shocked by Tennessee team’s ‘malpractice’ in Christa Pike’s failed execution

New details of IV team’s attempts to find a vein shared by Pike’s lawyer ‘shocked and disturbed’ practitioners Medical experts have expressed shock at the apparent incompetence shown by Tennessee’s execution team during the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike , the prisoner who survived a normally fatal dose of pentobarbital, which they say would be considered medical malpractice in any other setting.

Indiana Parole Board hears testimony on clemency for man scheduled for Nov. 5 execution

Jeffrey Weisheit set his house on fire in 2010, killing his girlfriend’s two young children he was watching. The Indiana Parole Board will now make a recommendation in the coming days to Governor Mike Braun on whether to grant clemency to condemned killer Jeffrey Weisheit. Jeffrey is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Nov. 5 for the 2010 murder of his girlfriend's 2 children in Vanderburgh County.

Tennessee Republicans want electrocution or firing squads to replace lethal injection

Tennessee Republican lawmakers are ready to change the state’s death penalty laws in the wake of two botched executions by lethal injection, including a renewed look at electrocution and firing squads. Republican Rep. Jody Barrett of Dickson confirmed this week he is considering sponsoring legislation in 2027 to make firing squads a method for putting people to death, even though one Democratic lawmaker called the practice “depraved.” Republican Sen. Tom Hatcher also said he is having a bill drafted that would either remove lethal injection from the execution process or reform it based on the results of a third-party investigation Gov. Bill Lee ordered after the failed execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike in September. Hatcher, a first-term senator from Maryville, acknowledged that eliminating lethal injection would leave electrocution as the only way allowed to put people to death.

Saudi Arabia executes woman, 'terrorists', 'indecent' couple, and juvenile offenders

Saudi Arabia carried out a series of executions in mid-October, including that of a woman convicted of killing her mother and attempting to kill her sister, alongside five men in the Eastern Province. Official statements described the five as terrorists; human rights groups described them as political prisoners sentenced under discretionary (ta’zir) penalties, one of whom was a child at the time of the alleged acts. The cases illustrate the kingdom’s continued use of the death penalty under Sharia, its stated commitment to public order and justice, and criticism from human rights organizations over the scope of capital punishment.

Florida | William Reaves set to be executed on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m.

With his execution date looming, convicted killer William Reaves will soon be moved from Raiford's Union Correctional Institution to a death watch cell in nearby Florida State Prison, a maximum-security complex also known as "The Rock." Reaves, 77, a former Gifford resident in Indian River County who’s been on death row for 38 years, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. His execution will fulfill a sentence of death imposed for the 1986 fatal shooting of Indian River County Sheriff’s Cpl. Richard “Raz” Raczkoski outside a Zippy Mart store on State Road 60 west of Vero Beach.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog