Indah Setiawati , The Jakarta Post , Denpasar | Sat, 11/15/2008 11:03 AM | Bali
Christian Burger, a Swiss citizen arrested in Bali as requested by the Indonesian Interpol, will soon be sentenced as ruled by a French court after the Denpasar district court decided to extradite him to France.
"During the two trials he admitted he had a pedophilia case pending in France and agreed to be extradited. There is no pedophilia case in Indonesia in his dossier," Ni Ketut Sri Menawati, the alternate court registrar told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
She said the court only checked and matched Burger's identity with the one in the extradition request file from the prosecutor's office.
"There were only two trials last week and both of them went smoothly," Sri said.
Burger had been listed as an Interpol fugitive for nearly a year after a panel of judges sentenced him to four years in prison over a pedophilia case.
The French government officially requested the Indonesian government to extradite him in May and the request was approved in early September when the Justice and Human Rights Ministry asked the National Police chief to process it.
He was arrested at his house in Denpasar as soon as he arrived from Thailand.
During the raid, police found some evidence, including a laptop, which contained dozens of photographs of naked adults and minors. Bali Police detectives pledged to bring him to trial in Denpasar if the photos were Indonesian minors, but the investigation was fruitless, an officer said.
"We cannot prove that the photos in his laptop are Indonesian victims because we cannot find those who were shown in the photos," head of documentation and reports at Bali Police Adj. Sr. Comr. Made Parwatha said Thursday.
Burger was currently under Bali police custody in Denpasar, he said after the ruling.
"We will soon transfer him to Kerobokan penitentiary because our detention rooms here are full," he said.
Mark Austin (not verified) — Sat, 11/15/2008 - 1:23pm
Give me a break, the Balinese police could not ascertain if the minors on film were local children or not indeed.