Calls to speed up court proceedings for 10 shoeshiner children seem to have fallen on deaf ears as they faced another setback in their hearing on Tuesday.
The trial, which was supposed to hear an indictment from the prosecutor, was adjourned until Monday next week because the prosecutor was not ready.
In a 30-minute hearing, which was closed to the public, prosecutor Reski Diniarty said she was still busy listening to the children's statements.
"It is impossible to directly write the indictment after listening to the children's testimonies and then read them out before the court room. Nobody can do so. I need time to prepare the indictment," Reski said.
Meanwhile, presiding judge Retno Pudyaningtyas along with two other judges, Perdana Ginting and Ismail, said they would not be able to finish the case soon unless the prosecutor completed her indictment.
"We can't decide to conduct a marathon hearing until the prosecutor is ready with her indictment," Pudyaningtyas said, referring to a non-stop hearing that would supposedly shorten the trial.
The statements from the prose-cutor and panel of judges mean extra waiting time for the children, the youngest of whom is eight years old and the eldest 15 years old, who are facing imprisonment for betting on a game of heads-or-tails at the airport.
The children were captured by airport police last month during a crackdown campaign to rid the airport of street vendors and street hawkers, including the shoeshiners.
Protests have been filed by children activists for the police ordering the children to lie in the midday sun; for the detention of the children for several weeks causing them to miss their final exams (forcing them to repeat the whole academic year).
The National Commission for Children Protection (Komnas PA) said it would lodge complaints on both the panel of judges and prosecutors to the Supreme Court, the Attorney General's Office and the Judicial Commission for stalling the trial.
"Prosecutor and the panel of judges have stalled the trial of the children even though they actually could speed it up by conducting marathon hearings," the commission's secretary-general, Arist Merdeka Sirait, told reporters.
"The prosecutor claimed she would be ready with the indictment today. This is very disappointing. They have not been professional in handling case implicating children," he said.
Last week, the Indonesian Commission for the Protection of Children (KPAI) called on the court to drop the case and acquit the children from all charges, labeling the actions of the airport police and prosecutor as "inhumane, arrogant and unnecessary".
Separately, prosecutor Pudyaningtyas insisted on charging the children with Criminal Code article 303 on gambling.
The Code does not differentiate between adults and children in gambling cases, she said.
If found guilty the children could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, half of the 10 year maximum sentence applicable for adults, she said.
