"We hereby sentence him to one year in prison, and order the defendant to remain in custody and pay Rp5 thousand in court proceeding costs," said presiding judge Amzer Simanjuntak when reading the verdict here on Wednesday.
In the trial with the agenda of verdict reading, the judge said that Karim was proven legally and convincingly to have abused narcotics in the form of marijuana.
It was stipulated in article 127 paragraph 1a Act (Law) RI No.35/ 2009 on Narcotics, and according to the panel of judges, Karim was only proved as a user.
The verdict handed down by the judges was lower than what the public prosecutor, I Ketut Sukada, had demanded , namely one and half year in jail.
A factor that relieved the defendant`s sentence during the trial is due to his polite attitude and confessing his actions, while the matter incriminating the defendant is his acts could damage younger generation, and Bali`s tourism image either.
Earlier, in a trial with pledoi agenda, Karim which was accompanied by his lawyer Made Loster defended himself as a drug addict, and expected only snared by Article 134 of the Criminal Code regarding drug addict with a lower penalty.
Hearing the verdict, the defendant Karim and the prosecutor stated to think about the verdict handed down by the judges.
Karim was arrested by police on Monday (March 28) at Villa Jepun, Krishna Street, Legian, Kuta, after the police received information from residents about the presence of foreign citizen who used drugs.
The police when conducting raids against Karim, found three packages of marijuana, each of which is found in the bathroom with a gross weight of 6.25 grams and the other two packages were found in Karim`s room located on the 2nd floor with the gross weight of each 19.31 grams and 18.50 grams.
Karim had told the police that the marijuana belonged to him and that he had to use it to ease the pain from an injury he had sustained in an accident. He had done it on the advice of his doctor in France.
(Uu.B003/HAJM/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
