Police officers escort child sexual abuse suspects Afrischa Setyani, center, and Syahrial, rear, to their trial in Jakarta. Pic: AP.
The trial of an alleged child sexual abuse ring will reconvene at South Jakarta District Court this week, in a controversial case that has sent shockwaves through the city’s expat community and threatens to bring down one of Asia’s most distinguished schools.
Three families have alleged that members of staff and outsourced janitors at the prestigious Jakarta International School (JIS) conspired to sexually abuse young boys in restrooms on campus. The suspects are now facing a maximum of 15 years imprisonment if found guilty, and a $125 million lawsuit has been filed against the school.
The case began on April 14, when the mother of a six-year old JIS pupil known as TP filed a report to police after finding bruises on her son’s stomach and anus. Initially, six janitors — five men and one woman — were arrested on suspicion of gang rape, but one male janitor — a 27-year old named Azwar — died in police custody on April 26. Two more families later came forward alleging similar charges to those of TP, leading to the arrests of a Canadian teacher, Neil Bantleman, and an Indonesian teaching aide, Ferdinand Tjong, who have been detained without charge since July 14. A third member of staff, school principal Elsa Donohue, is still under investigation as a witness to the crime, but has not yet been named as a suspect.
Beginning with Azwar’s mysterious death at a South Jakarta detention centre, the JIS case has been marred by numerous allegations of police brutality and lack of transparency.
Sr. Police Commissioner Rikwanto, head of the Jakarta Police Public Relations Department, maintains that Azwar committed suicide in a police toilet cubicle after drinking cleaning fluid during a break from his interrogation. Officers at the scene say they found Azwar laying on the floor and foaming from the mouth, with an opened bottle of Porstex cleaner discarded beside him. Six hours later, after being rushed to Sukanto Police Hospital, Azwar was pronounced dead.
Azwar’s attorney, Fahmi Irfan, believes that his client was beaten and abused in police custody. After being granted permission to see Azwar’s dead body at the police hospital, Irfan discovered that Azwar’s face was badly swollen and his body covered in bruises — claims that were later verified by several of Azwar’s relatives. Despite obvious signs of mistreatment in police custody, however, Azwar’s mother, Maya, allegedly requested for police not to carry out an autopsy on Azwar’s body. Rikwanto claims that Maya, Azwar’s only living parent, wanted to bury her child as soon as possible in order to avoid further media attention. Rikwanto also claims that this decision was taken in good faith — denying accusations that Azwar’s relatives had been blackmailed — but still refuses to release the police’s own report on Azwar’s death.
The remaining four male janitors in the case later confessed to raping a number of JIS pupils on several occasions, going back as far as January 2014. On August 26 and 27, however, as soon as their trial began, the four suspects recanted their confessions claiming that they had been extracted through police torture during interrogation. Saut Irianto Rajagukguk, an attorney representing two of the janitors, said that his clients were “beaten by police. Objects were used to torture them. Chairs were used to beat them up.” The youngest of Rajagukguk’s defendants, 20-year-old Virgiawan Amin, said that he was subjected to a painful anal probing exercise as part of a supposed medical examination; a procedure that report led to serious bruising and several days of anal bleeding, according to Amin’s attorney.
The police investigation into Bantleman and Ferdinand’s role in the alleged rapes has also led to the use of some rather bizarre interrogation techniques. Bantleman and Ferdinand have so far been subjected to a closed-door medical examination — which neither of their attorneys were allowed to attend — as well as a lie detector test and a consultation with a well-known sexologist, Dr. Naek L. Tobing, who also happens to be a leading researcher on Indonesia’s micropenis epidemic. Tobing was brought in to interview Bantleman and Ferdinand so that he could give an analysis of their sexual histories, fantasies and sexual orientation. Bantleman and Ferdinand’s attorneys say that the two men are yet to be questioned in relation to any concrete evidence, yet they remain in police custody without charge. Bantleman even claims that police investigators have encouraged him to confess to the charges and implicate Ferdinand, as a way to “make this easy on yourself.”
Whilst the allegations of child sex abuse at JIS are indeed serious allegations, the peculiarities of the police investigation thus far give us little reason to believe that the suspects in question will be guaranteed a fair trial. The prosecution of the five remaining janitors will continue this week, despite the recanting of the suspects’ confessions, and the trial will play out behind closed doors due to the young age of the victim. Consequently, any evidence used in court will not be made public. Rikwanto has consistently denied allegations of police brutality against the suspects, claiming that it is normal, in Indonesia’s justice system, for the accused to recant their confessions as soon as their case goes to court. According to Indonesian legal experts, the three-judge panel hearing the janitors’ defence will now have the option to nullify the confessions completely, partially accept them, or accept them in full.