22 September 2008 :

an Indonesian district court sentenced two Indonesians and a Malaysian to death for illegally distributing ecstasy pills in the country, media reports said. The West Jakarta district court found the three, identified as Jat Lie Chandra, 39, Christian, 49, and a Malaysian Lim Jit Wee alias Kim, 42, guilty for violating the country's tough anti-narcotic laws for illegally keeping, storing and distributing ecstasy pills. Chief Judge Hesmu Purwanto said in the court ruling that the defendants received such a stiff sentence because they had large amounts of ecstasy pills and intended to distribute them in the country. The three were arrested during a raid in Jakarta in November 2007, in which police confiscated nearly 500,000 ecstasy pills. In addition, the police also seized 2.5-billion rupiah (US$268,000 dollars), US$60,000 and 168,000 Hong Kong dollars in cash. Indonesian police at the time said the seizure was one of the largest in a single drug raid in the country.