7 DRUG DEALERS APPEAL JAIL SENTENCES, GET DEATH

Judges Feared Methods Taught to Inmates

JAKARTA -- Indonesia's Supreme Court converted jail terms given to
seven foreigners in a drug case to death sentences after the
defendants appealed against the length of their prison terms.

The judges yesterday ruled the drug operation, involving a plant
capable of making a million tablets of the amphetamine known as
ecstasy a week, was part of an international organized-crime
operation, court spokes-man Joko Sarwoko said.

Dutch national Nicolaas Garnick and Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui had
previously been sentenced by lower courts to life in prison.

Five Chinese nationals had previously received 20-year jail terms and
two Indonesians, previously sentenced to death, had their punishments
upheld.

"These people set up an organized corporation to make illegal drugs,"
Sarwoko said. "They are experts and may teach other inmates how to
make drugs. The Supreme Court decided to instead give death sentences."

The defendants can seek a presidential pardon, rarely given in drug
cases, Sarwoko said.

Indonesia last year sentenced to death six of nine Australians caught
in Bali trying to smuggle almost nine kilograms of heroin to Australia.