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Cleaners seek acquittal in child abuse case
Showing solidarity: The colleagues of five defendants who stand accused of abusing children at the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) wait outside the closed trial at the South Jakarta Court on Wednesday
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span class="inline inline-center">Showing solidarity: The colleagues of five defendants who stand accused of abusing children at the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) wait outside the closed trial at the South Jakarta Court on Wednesday. The five pleaded not guilty to the charges. JP/DON
A week before the trial verdict, five cleaning service staffers of PT ISS Indonesia pleaded not guilty before South Jakarta District Court judges, hoping that the judges would acquit them in the child sex abuse case at the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS).
Virgiawan Amin, one of the defendants, told the panel of judges on Wednesday that he had no clue about the sex abuse case he was indicted in and he emphasized that his guilty confession was only made to avoid further torture by police officers.
Previously, the prosecutors demanded that a panel of judges sentence Virgiawan, along with four other cleaners, Zainal Abidin, Syahrial, Agun Iskandar and Afrischa Setyani, to 10 years of imprisonment.
The prosecutors charged them under Article 82 of the Child Protection Law with a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison in conjunction with articles 55 and 64 of the Criminal Code for continuously and collectively sexually abusing a former student of the school.
During the previous trial sessions, the prosecutors failed to present any proof before the court that any of the defendants had herpes, which had been allegedly transmitted to the victim during 13 instances of sexual abuse as claimed by police during the investigation.
On the defense statement document made available to The Jakarta Post, Virgiawan said during the interrogation, police officers had beaten him up and tortured him as well as pointed a gun at his head because he refused to admit to the criminal act.
'I had been interrogated from 3:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. before I finally limped and had no other options other than to confess to something that I did not do. After that, the officer started to write the dossiers,' said Virgiawan in the statement.
The four male cleaners who confessed to the crime in police custody retracted their statements in the first trial hearing.
Virgiawan also said that during the interrogation process, police officers forced him to mention the name of his fellow cleaners to be dragged into the case.
'I hope that the judges can deliver an acquittal decision for me because I am not guilty and I was only a scapegoat in this case,' he said.
Meanwhile, Agun told the judges that he had undergone severe maltreatment from a police officer, including having his head hit with a chair, before he finally admitted to sexually abusing the children even though he did not.
'I did not have the guts to hit back because I am aware that the man who beat me has the law behind him, while I don't have anything,' Agun said in his defense statement.
A panel of the judges is scheduled to read the verdict next Monday.
