D

adang Supriyatna was sentenced on Tuesday at the North Jakarta District Court to 13 years in prison and the option of paying a fine of Rp 60 million (US$5,107) or serving an additional six months in jail for kidnapping and abusing 3-year-old Iqbal.

The panel of judges declared Dadang guilty of physically torturing the child under Article 80 and sexually and economically exploiting him under Article 88 of the 2002 Child Protection Law.

'€œAs we have found the defendant guilty of sexually and economically exploiting Iqbal, we sentence him to 13 years in prison,'€ presiding judge Usaha Ginting declared.

The trial was closed to the public due to the victim'€™s young age, but the verdict was handed down in an open session. None of the victim'€™s relatives was present.

The toddler'€™s maltreatment was discovered on March 13, when a woman, Juliana, noticed the ailing child in the arms of Dadang, who claimed to be the child'€™s father, at the Mangga Dua busway stop in North Jakarta.

The police discovered that Dadang was the boyfriend of Iqbal'€™s mother, Iis Novianti, and was not the child'€™s father.

The panel of judges found Dadang guilty of kidnapping Iqbal from Iis last December at the Atrium Senen shopping mall in Central Jakarta.

Usaha explained that the judges also found him guilty of forcing Iqbal to busk on the street and purposely hurting him so that people would give the child more money out of pity for his scars.

According to the police investigation, Usaha said, Dadang had pierced Iqbal'€™s chest with hot nails at least 15 times, broken his arms, hit his head on a wall repeatedly and cut his tongue and genitals. When the scars started to disappear, Usaha said, Dadang would hurt the child again.

Iqbal was released from the hospital in May after being treated for two months. However, he will continue undergoing treatment three times a week over the next six months due to permanent brain damage.

'€œThere are no mitigating factors,'€ Usaha said.

He added that Dadang would remain in detention and would also have to pay the court a fee of Rp 5,000.

Separately, Dadang'€™s lawyer, Hendrayanto, told The Jakarta Post that the defendant would not appeal against the sentence as he had already suspected that the judges would accept the prosecutor'€™s request for a 13-year prison sentence.

'€œDadang already told me before the verdict that he would accept the sentence no matter how heavy it was because he regretted his actions,'€ he said.

Iqbal has been put in the care of his aunt in Bekasi, West Java, as his mother has been deemed unfit to care for him. (fss)