Ten children arrested for allegedly gambling and illegally offering shoe-shining services at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport attended the first hearing of their trial at Tangerang District court on Monday.
The children, who wore masks to conceal their identities, were accompanied by their mothers and a defense lawyer as they heard prosecutor Reski Diniarti read out the charges against them.
Reski said the children, who worked daily at the airport as shoe shiners, were caught gambling at the Damri bus pool at terminal 1-B on May 29.
"The defendants have violated Article 303 of the Criminal Code on gambling and therefore they must be punished to ensure they do not repeat their deeds," she told the hearing, presided over by Retno Pudyaningtyas, Perdana Ginting and Ismail.
The children face a maximum sentence of five-years imprisonment.
The airport police apprehended the minors as they bet Rp 1,000 (about 10 US cent) on a coin toss game.
The youngest defendant is just 8-years-old; the oldest is 15. After their arrest, the children were taken directly into police custody, forced to lie in the midday sun, then locked behind bars.
Their incarceration prevented them from taking their year-end exams, which were held during the first week of June. They will not have to repeat the year they were in.
Airport police chief Sr. Comr. Guntur Setyanto claimed the move was part of a campaign to "clean up" the airport.
The 10 children, who were studying at Rawa Rengas Elementary School and open junior high school, were reunited with their families after police handed them over to the Tangerang prosecutors office on July 10 .
"We begged the police to release our children because they had to face the final examination, but it was to no avail," Indun, 35, the mother of one of the children, told The Jakarta Post before the hearing.
She said the children usually work as shoe shiners at the airport before they go to school in the afternoon to help their poor parents earn money.
"My son should have started junior high school today but he and his friends instead have to stand before the court. He and his friends could not take the final exams because they were detained by the police," she said.
The parents of the children were forced to sell anything they could to pay the cost of visiting their children while they were detained.
"I have sold my bed, my stove, my clothes and many other things just to pay the cost of transportation to visit my son in jail," Indun said.
