Indonesian Court Sentences Japanese Grandfather, 73, to Life for Drug Smuggling

Jakarta Globe, May 21, 2015

Masaru Kawada, 73, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for drug
smuggling, but maintains that he was an unwitting mule. (Antara Photo/Iggoy el Fitra)

Jakarta. An Indonesian court has sentenced a 73-year-old Japanese man to life in prison for trafficking 2.35 kilograms of methamphetamine into the country from Macau.

The Pariaman District Court in West Sumatra ruled on Wednesday that Masaru Kawada acted as part of an international drug-trafficking syndicate when he brought the drugs in his bag on a flight from the Chinese city by way of Kuala Lumpur last November.

Customs officers arrested Kawada at Minangkabau International Airport in Padang, the provincial capital, after an X-ray scan of his bag revealed the drugs concealed in the lining.

The sentence handed down was heavier than the 16 years sought by prosecutors, who cited Kawada’s advanced age. Kawada’s lawyer said on Thursday that they would mount an appeal, and reiterated his defense that he was an unwitting drug mule and not a trafficker.

Syusvida Lastri, the lawyer, said her client had from the start argued that the bag with the drugs was not his, and that he had been paid to carry it to Indonesia by an Englishman identified only as Edward Mark. Kawada, who worked as an English translator in his homeland, claimed Mark asked him to travel to Macau, paying his fare from Japan and giving him $500 up front. In Macau, he said, he met an associate of Mark’s, who asked him to take the bag to Padang and paid him $200.

Kawada claimed he didn’t notice the drugs when he first received the bag, and only found out when customs officers in Padang identified the package on their X-ray scanner.

Syusvida said Kawada, a grandfather of two, had initially feared he might get the death sentence. The Indonesian government has garnered international condemnation for two sets of executions carried out this year on drug convicts. President Joko Widodo, citing dubious data to justify his response to a so-called “drug emergency,” ordered 14 people put to death by firing squad this year, 12 of them foreigners.