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Alterina runs gender reassignment surgeries
The trial into the case of Alterina Hofan, a man with Klinefelter syndrome, continued Monday with the judge collecting statements from the prosecutors’ witnesses
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he trial into the case of Alterina Hofan, a man with Klinefelter syndrome, continued Monday with the judge collecting statements from the prosecutors’ witnesses.
Dewi Susianty, a lawyer, testified that Alterina used a women’s locker room at a golf club in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta. She spoke based on the explanation of her clients, who are Alterina’s in-laws, who pressed charges against Alterina over alleged document fraud.
“My client said the defendant once showed his genitals to his friends at a golf course in 2006 after he performed gender reassignment and breast reduction surgeries,” she said.
Alterina, 33, claimed he had Klinefelter syndrome, a chromosome disorder in which men have an extra X chromosome.
Children with Klinefelter are born with undetected, or small penises, which will slowly develop when they hit puberty.
Alterina, who had been charged with forging his birth certificate, ID and family cards, has documented himself as a man and even married Jane Hadipoespito after years of alleged sex operations.
Jane’s parents denounced the marriage, filing a lawsuit against Alterina for fraud because he previously declared he was a woman on his identity cards.
Other witnesses at the Monday trial, Muhayar and Hartini, both from Pondok Pinang district and subdistrict offices in South Jakarta, confirmed they received necessary documents, including birth certificate, from Alterina in 2007, as part of requirements to process the issuance of a family card.
“The birth certificate needed to make the family card stating Alterina was a male. Nothing was wrong,” one witness said.
Another of Alterina’s lawyers, Raymond Ratu Taga, said his client had followed every procedure to change his sex status to male.
“With the help of his mother, Alterina made the sex-status change on Dec. 18, 2006 in Jayapura, Papua, as he was born there,” he said, adding his client had never had any sex change surgery.
“He had breast reduction surgery in 2006 for health reasons,” he added.
Last month prosecutors requested the court hand down a seven-year prison sentence. But on May 30, he was granted conditional release. (JP/tsy)
