T

he Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court'€™s conviction of child sexual abuse that sentenced five contracted cleaners at the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) to seven and eight years'€™ imprisonment.

The Supreme Court'€™s online website, kepaniteraan.mahkamahagung.go.id, showed that cassation filed by Zainal Abidin, Syahrial, Agun Iskandar, Virgiawan Amin and Afrischa Setyani had been turned down by the panel of judges chaired by Sumardijatmo on July 28.

Patra M. Zen, the lawyer representing Zainal, Syahrial, Agun and Virgiawan, confirmed Tuesday that his clients'€™ cassation had been rejected, and added that he was waiting for the court to send him a copy of the verdict before taking any further action. He said that he learned about the verdict only a few days before Tuesday.

'€œOnce we get the official copy, we will start to draft our judicial review,'€ Patra told The Jakarta Post, adding that he was still certain that the cleaners were convicted of a crime they did not commit.

In December last year, four of the cleaners were sentenced to eight years imprisonment, while Afrischa, the only woman among the convicts, got seven years for collaborating with others and repeatedly sexually abusing a minor at the school.

The cleaners'€™ earlier appeal was dismissed on Feb. 18 by the Jakarta High Court, prompting them to file the cassation to the Supreme Court. Until the cassation, the cleaners maintained their innocence, retracting their previous confession, which according to them, was made under police duress. Police have denied the allegation.

During the case investigation, the police also claimed that one suspect, Azwar, committed suicide using cleaning liquid in the restroom, while other cleaners testified that they had seen him being beaten severely. The police launched an internal investigation of the torture allegations in June, but no result has been released.

Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch called Azwar'€™s death suspicious and said an investigation was needed to find if there was any abuse committed by police officers during the investigation, underlining that the bruises on his face were irregular.

'€œIf it was really suicide, why did a picture taken before he was buried show bruises and swelling on his face,'€ he said.

He added that support showed by the JIS community for the cleaners was solid proof that the parents and other teachers believed that there was no sexual abuse committed by the six.

Patra said he had prepared new evidence to support his judicial review petition in the hope that it would be a game changer to acquit the cleaners. '€œBut I cannot give any details until I get the verdict copy,'€ he said.

Having been made public only over the weekend, the Supreme Court verdict came two weeks before the Jakarta High Court overturned the 10-year-imprisonment conviction given to Indonesian Ferdinant Tjiong and Canadian Neil Bantleman, two JIS teaching staff members, in a similar case.

In the teachers'€™ acquittal decision, the judges found that the medical examination released by Pondok Indah Hospital in South Jakarta, which showed one of the alleged victims suffered injuries to his rectum, was suspicious as it was released after the result from state-run Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, which found no such injuries to the boy.

The Pondok Indah Hospital result was also used as evidence in the cleaners'€™ case.

Similar to Patra, Afrischa'€™s lawyer Isdawati will also file a judicial review once she receives a copy.

'€œAfter the cassation was turned down, this is Afrischa'€™s last hope,'€ she said.

Supreme Court spokesperson Suhadi said the court'€™s official copy would need to be rechecked by the team before it was delivered to any related parties. '€œIt won'€™t be long, the copy will be sent in three months or so.'€