Encourage harsher penalties in sexual assault cases in Indonesia | Sexual Assault News

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Medan, Indonesia – It was the worst nightmare of all the parents.
A six-year-old family has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Medan District Court in Indonesia’s Medan city for allegedly sexually assaulting her daughters.
“Our children,” said the mother of one, as she fell into her chair, arousing fears of dizziness.
Benyamin Sitepu, a 37-year-old Christian priest who was also the principal of the Galileo Hosana School in Medango, received a five-year sentence less than the maximum 15-year sentence requested by the prosecution.
The judge said that Sitepu had been given a shorter sentence because the priest had apologized for his crimes and had previously signed an agreement between the two relatives of the victims.
The prosecution and Sitepu are appealing the sentence.
In response to the verdict, Indonesian Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono told Al Jazeera that the sentence was too short, especially considering the age of Sitepu and Indonesia’s pardon system, as most prisoners serve about two-thirds of their sentence.
If Sitepu apologizes, he has only served seven years and could be released before the age of 50.
“If he gets a pardon, he will be quite young when he is released and he will still be at risk for the children,” Harsono said, adding that a short prison sentence will exacerbate the trauma of the victims.
Ranto Sibarani, a human rights lawyer in Medan who represented the family, said they were disappointed that Sitepu had not been punished as much as possible and called on religious organizations to take more responsibility for crimes committed by the organizations in which they operate.
“If people commit crimes under the banner of the church, for example, the church must apologize,” Sibarani told Al Jazeera.
“Religious leaders should make public statements to say that they support the legal process in all cases of sexual assault and support the right of victims to take action.”
The small school in Medan became the centerpiece of the sexual assault scandal in March 2021, when six female students appeared when one of them told their grandparents that the priest had been abused.
At the time of the attacks, 13-year-old girls said that Sitepu had locked them in his office in such a way as to give them “special lessons” like ballet and that he had touched them inappropriately.
One of the students says that he was taken to a local hotel by Sitepu and told school staff that he was being taken to karate schools outside the place, was sexually assaulted and forced to give oral sex.
After the student advanced, police had to take him to the hotel and identify the room where he was regularly attacked – Harsono and Sibarani were criticized for exacerbating his trauma.
Sibarani added that he believed that Indonesian judges were questioning whether religious leaders should be convicted or sentenced to lengthy prison terms for historical ideas about respect for those in alleged religious authority positions.
New punishment
Indonesia has had a difficult time in recent months A number of alarming child sexual abuses are headlines across the country, many of which involved religious organizations.
In West Java’s Bandung City, 36-year-old Hank Wirawan, a director of a Muslim boarding school, has been arrested and charged with raping 13 students and at least eight pregnant women since 2016.
On Jan. 11, prosecutors asked for a death sentence if Wirawan was found guilty.

According to Indonesian law, the maximum sentence for child sexual assault is usually 15 years, even if the judges may exercise their discretion in the case of sentencing if a case is found to be particularly malicious.
Prosecutors have requested that Wirawan be chemically castrated under a new law signed by Indonesian President Joko Widodo a year ago in 2016 after a violent gang rape of a 14-year-old female student in Bengkulu. The penalty is still unused. .
On January 20, Lukas Lucky Ngalngola, known as ‘Brother Angelo’, was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a Catholic priest who ran an orphanage on the outskirts of Jakarta for 14 years for sexually abusing children in his care.
In his sentencing, Judge Ahmad Fadil described the 47-year-old priest’s “despicable actions” and said that his behavior was particularly touching “a good example for a clergyman and what he needed to know.” that his actions were contrary to religious teachings ”.
When the judge handed down his sentence via video link due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ngalngola raised his hands in prayer.
“They feel invincible, hiding behind their religion,” Sibarani said. “Who will stand up for the victims when the perpetrators are seen as respected members of the community?”
Ustadz Martono, a Muslim scholar and chairman of the United In Diversity Forum, told Al Jazeera that cases of sexual assault on Indonesian religious organizations or religious leaders are often managed internally for fear of embarrassing organizations representing leaders.
“My desire is to process cases like this in a much more open way,” he said. “They must be managed transparently by law.”

Members of the Christian community also agree that more needs to be done, and that publicly-speaking religious organizations should help the authorities to make fewer arrests and to send cases to trial.
“We welcome and appreciate the steps taken by the police and prosecutors to handle and punish the perpetrator of the Benyamin Sitepu case in Medan,” said Alex Ramandey, deputy secretary of the central board of the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement (GAMKI). Jazeera.
“Above all, the author is also a church figure who has embarrassed Christians.”
Ramandey added that religious organizations should provide education to the parents of children in their care to recognize and report such cases and to assist those who are going through the judicial process.
It is unclear how many cases of assault on minors occur every year in Indonesia, as many cases have not been reported to the authorities.
According to the Indonesian Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), 288 child victims applied for protection in 2021. Of that number, more than 65 percent were victims of sexual violence.
LPSK Vice President Edwin Partogi Pasaribu said 25 victims had been sexually abused in educational institutions.
“We should respect the people on the line and their religious beliefs, but they should also be judged by their actions,” Martono said.
“If people break the law, they should not be religious leaders. We should not be ashamed in silence.
“Morally, we all have a responsibility and we need to acknowledge and not cover up when these crimes occur.
“If we don’t say anything, we’re complicit.”
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