The 10 children arrested for allegedly gambling and offering illegal shoe-shining services at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, can breathe the air of freedom and be reunited with their families... for the moment.
The Tangerang District Court decided Friday to release them after the airport police handed them over along with their dossiers earlier in the day, after keeping the minors at the children's penitentiary for almost a month.
"We're releasing them from detention for their own interests, but the legal proceedings will continue," said Tangerang chief prosecutor Suyono.
He added prosecutors would first study the case, and if the dossiers were complete, it would be handed to the Tangerang District Court for trial.
The threat of imprisonment still looms large over the shoeshine boys, prosecutor Rezky Diniarti said in a phone interview.
She said their release was only temporary, until their trial to determine their punishment.
"They did something illegal, which was to gamble, and they must be punished for it," she said, adding the exact date for the trial had not been determined yet.
The airport police apprehended the minors on May 31, while the boys were placing bets on coin tosses.
The move was part of the "Clean Airport" campaign, launched a year ago by the state-owned airport operator.
One of the boys, Abdul Rochman, said they had only been passing the time, adding the amounts betted were trifling.
"We were only tossing a coin at the bus shelter. The police officers then grabbed us and accused us of gambling," he told The Jakarta Post.
"We were only betting Rp 1,000 *10 US cents* or Rp 2,000," Irfan, another of the boys, said earlier this week prior to his release.
The children said they had been taken to the nearby police post, told to lie in the sun at high noon, then put behind bars.
The arrest prevented them from taking their year-end exams, held during the first week of June.
They reportedly also experienced "considerable amounts of stress" after being separated from their families.
The 10 children earlier wrote letters to the deputy head of the airport's crime unit, Bambang Hermanto, pleading for leniency.
"My younger brother cries every night because he misses our parents back home, pak," wrote 13-year-old Abdul Roham, referring to his brother, Abdul Rohim, who was also detained in the same cell.
Dhoho A. Sastro, director of Legal Aid Institute LBHM, said the children might not have to serve more time in prison if the judge was willing to exhibit a bit of leniency in the sentencing.
"It's quite possible the kids could avoid being put back into the penitentiary," he said.
"If the judge hands down suspended sentences, in which the kids are sentenced to a period of time, say six months, in reality they don't have to serve out the sentence in prison, as long as they stay away from illegal acts," he said.
Dhoho added that in a suspended sentence, should the boys breach the law during that period, they would immediately be put behind bars. (dis)
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|