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outh Jakarta Police say that the alleged relationship between a suspected assailant and the victim of a recent gang-rape will not create a bias against the victim.

“We won’t direct our investigation into solving the issue [of their relationship],” South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Imam Sugianto said on Monday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Imam said that in the investigation, the police would focus on the crime committed by the assailants.

Three of the four suspected assailants were arrested in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, on Tuesday last week. The first suspect arrested, identified as Yogi, was caught by two traffic officers who responded to a report by the victim, 27-year-old R.S., in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta.

Imam said the police were looking into possible motives. R.S. was allegedly raped by four men inside a KWK D-02 public minivan plying the Ciputat-Pondok Labu route.

The Police handling the investigation learned that R.S. and Yogi had a personal relationship prior to the incident.

National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) commissioner Andy Yentriyani had said that a potential relationship between the victim and any of the assailants was irrelevant.

“It doesn’t make it any less of a crime,” she said.

Wulan Danoekosoemo, cofounder of Lentera Indonesia, said that in many cases of sexual assault, the victims know the perpetrators, as they were usually relatives, neighbors or someone they had known for a while.

Separately, the Jakarta Police special unit for teenagers, children and women questioned on Monday a 22-year-old woman, identified as A.I.F., who was one of three women who recently filed a complaint of sexual harassment against a high-ranking official at the National Land Agency (BPN).

The other victims, identified as A.N. and N.P.S., were questioned last week.

The victims’ lawyer, Sinta Dewi, said that of the three, A.I.F. had suffered the most, as she was sexually abused for more than eight months.

“She suffered the worst type of abuse, because her employer never stopped groping her,” Sinta said.

N.P.S. said she was sexually abused twice in July and A.N. said she was abused sometime between May and June.

Sinta added that the police had also questioned a new witness in connection to the case.

The alleged assailant, identified as G, 44, served as the agency’s Land Rights Management director. The women filed their report on Sept. 13. Lawyers of the accusers said that G. should be charged under the Criminal Code, which carries a seven-year prison term for sexual assault. (mim)