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Parents who 'abandoned' kids may avoid punishment
The Jakarta Police conducted another psychological evaluation on Friday morning of the parents who are alleged to have abandoned their five children
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he Jakarta Police conducted another psychological evaluation on Friday morning of the parents who are alleged to have abandoned their five children.
The tests, carried out at the Raden Said Soekanto Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, will form part of the deliberation as to whether to name them suspects in a domestic violence case.
The couple's lawyer, Handika Honggowongso, told journalists that his clients' mental states had been unstable for the past six months or so and the condition had left them unable to take care of their children.
He said the father believed he was descended from Sambernyowo, or Raden Mas Said, a prince and an Indonesia national hero, and the children's mother was the reincarnation of Tribhuwana Tunggadewi, a queen of the Majapahit empire, who ruled the kingdom in East Java from 1329 to 1350.
'They locked themselves in the house and performed some rituals. Using methamphetamine was their way to stay awake during the rituals,' Handika said.
Initially, it had been planned that the couple would meet their children at the hospital, but the plan was canceled as the parents were not considered to be mentally prepared.
Meanwhile, a legal expert has said the couple could possibly escape conviction if they are found to be mentally ill.
Chudry Sitompul, a legal expert from the University of Indonesia, said on Friday that according to the Criminal Code, a person with a mental illness could not be punished.
'However, all legal proceedings, such as investigation, indictment and court examination, must continue despite their mental state,' he said over the phone.
Judges would then determine if the parents could be held legally accountable for their actions, he said.
Chudry added that the investigators would also need to seek a second opinion relating to the couple's condition.
'We don't want this [mental problem] to be just a lawyer's strategy to evade the law because there is always a possibility that the couple are pretending to be mentally ill,' he said.
The Women's Legal Aid Foundation (LBH APIK) legal aid division head Uli Pangaribuan said that the couple's condition did appear suspicious.
'He [Utomo] was a lecturer. I think it's a little bit odd for a lecturer to suddenly become mentally ill. It might be more believable if the unusual behavior was caused by drug abuse,' she said over the phone.
Uli expressed her concern about the children's lives if the court declared their parents mentally unstable.
'The parents will lose their custody and the children will become wards of the state until they reach the age of 18 if none of their relatives are deemed capable by the authorities of nurturing them,' she said.
Chudry said that being wards of the state was sometimes not a good thing.
'I'm concerned that the children will just get by without being properly nourished, loved and educated,' he said. (prm)
