JAKARTA: An Indonesian court on Borneo island on Wednesday jailed a man for eight months after he grew medicinal marijuana to help ease the pain being suffered by his cancer-stricken wife, who died shortly after his arrest, his lawyer said.
Indonesia has among the strictest drug laws in the world and has been jailing a record number of users and dealers because of what the government says is a drugs emergency facing the country.
The hard-line approach to drugs is broadly popular in the Southeast Asian country, but the story of Fidelis Arie has stirred sympathy and outrage from rights activists.
The Sanggau district court in West Kalimantan province jailed Arie for eight months and fined him 1 billion rupiah ($75,000), his lawyer Marcelina Lin said by telephone from the court. The term was longer than the five months that the prosecution had sought.
According to his lawyer, the court had found that Arie did not have a permit to use marijuana and had supplied it to another person, although he said the judge accepted that he was not a user or a dealer.
Lin said his client, a father of two, had cried on hearing the verdict and was still considering whether to appeal the verdict. He is currently being held in the Sanggau Correctional Institute.
The sister of the convicted man, Yohana, also said the family was still weighing up whether he should appeal.
“Because any decision won’t make his wife come back,” she said in a telephone text message.
Rights groups and legal activists condemned the verdict.
“Fidelis might have committed a crime in planting those marijuana bushes but it was done in an emergency situation,” said Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch.
“He did that planting for his love of his wife. He should not be jailed for loving his wife,” said Harsono.
The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) also called for all charges should be dropped against Arie.
“This case should open the government’s eyes, especially those of the president whose statements about the war on drugs...have resulted in Fidelis becoming one of the victims.”
Indonesian President Joko Widodo recently told law enforcement officers to shoot drug traffickers to deal with the narcotics emergency in the country. Widodo has also been criticized by rights groups and some foreign governments for ordering the executions of convicted drug traffickers. ($1 = 13,330.0000 rupiah)
Indonesia jails man who grew marijuana to treat cancer-stricken wife
Indonesia jails man who grew marijuana to treat cancer-stricken wife
UK court jails Christian camp leader for drugging, sexually abusing boys
- Ruben admitted offenses relating to ill-treatment of children and sexual abuse — as well as to drugging his wife, who was volunteering at the camp, in order to avoid detection
LONDON: A court in England on Friday jailed a man for more than 31 years for drugging and sexually abusing young boys at a Christian summer camp he led last summer.
Police say they are now talking to other groups he worked with in the past as part of an ongoing investigation.
Former vet Jon Ruben, 76, was leading the camp last July, said a statement from prosecutors released after Friday’s judgment.
He laced sweets with sedatives and tricked children at the camp into eating them by encouraging them to take part in a game.
“Later on, while the boys were heavily asleep, he went into their dormitory and chose individual boys to sexually abuse them,” said prosecutors.
Volunteers at the camp in Leicestershire, central England, raised the alarm after finding the children still nauseous, drowsy and disoriented the next day.
Eight boys aged between eight and 11 were taken to hospital and Ruben was arrested.
Investigators found syringes and sedatives at the camp location.
On his devices they found indecent images of children as well as evidence he had procured tranquilizer drugs and tried to join an online paedophile network.
Ruben admitted offenses relating to ill-treatment of children and sexual abuse — as well as to drugging his wife, who was volunteering at the camp, in order to avoid detection.
A court in Leicester sentenced him on Friday to a total of 31 years and 10 months behind bars under special provisions for defendants designated by prosecutors as particularly dangerous.
Leicestershire police said the investigation into Ruben was still “very much ongoing.”
Officers are contacting schools and youth organizations in central England with whom Ruben was involved with over the past two decades.
