A

dance teacher at St. Monica'€™s early childhood education school in Sunter, North Jakarta, appeared before the North Jakarta District Court on Wednesday for allegedly sexually abusing a two-and-a-half-year-old male student.

The prosecutor charged Harianti under Article 82 of the 2014 Child Protection Law, which stipulates that anyone who molests a child could face a minimum of five years and maximum of 15 years in prison.

'€œIn our initial indictment, we also charged the defendant under Article 80 (1) of the law on committing violence toward children,'€ prosecutor Erni Maroti said at the court.

In May 2014, the mother filed a report with the North Jakarta Police, claiming that her son had been molested by his school'€™s dance teacher. The mother told the police the her son also showed signs of stress, like screaming and yelling. She said she first learned about the molestation after her son complained about pain in his anus and he refused to go to school.

According to the indictment, Harianti abused the child on April 29 at about 10 a.m. during a dance class when there was only her and the victim in the classroom.

'€œThe abuse continued until finally the victim screamed and asked the teacher to stop,'€ Erni said.

Erni added that a medical expert from Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital had explained that the medical report stated that the child'€™s anus was bruised.

Shortly after the hearing, Harianti'€™s lawyer, Reynold Thonak, said the accusation was false. Reynold said that on April 29, the child had arrived late for the dance class and there were two teachers and 13 other students in the classroom.

'€œThere is no chance that the incident happened on that day as claimed by the prosecutor, but if it is true, many people would have witnessed the incident,'€ Reynold told reporters.

Reynold said the medical examination report only showed that there was a red bruise on the victim'€™s rectum, but could not explain the cause of the bruise and he insisted that '€œthere is a chance it was not caused by the defendant'€.

During the hearing, Reynold also asked the panel of judges to change his client'€™s detention status to city detention because she had a small child who needed her.

'€œMy client is also the backbone of the family and needs to go back to work. Her husband will be the guarantor for the new detention status,'€ he said.

The panel of judges, chaired by Ifa Sudewi, said that they would respond to the defendant'€™s request in the next hearing, which is scheduled for March 11.