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policeman, along with three companions, has been detained by the Taman Sari Police on suspicion of defrauding and sexually assaulting a woman at a hotel in West Jakarta last week.

Taman Sari detective division chief Comr. Guruh Chandra Permana confirmed the policeman'€™s involvement, alleging that the officer in question, identified as 33-year-old Taman Sari Police officer Brig. Dedi Aleksander Sinaga, and his three friends had tricked the victim, identified only as 22-year-old SL, before sexually abusing her and stealing her belongings.

'€œOne of the suspects is a member of the police. They extorted money from the victim, then raped her,'€ Guruh said over the phone on Sunday.

The victim, he added, had reported the case to the Taman Sari Police last Friday. According to the report, one of the suspects, identified as Nicky, tricked the victim by coming to her rented room to ask for help in searching for a boarding room nearby.

Nicky then asked for the victim'€™s number and asked her to meet him at a hotel in Mangga Besar the next day so she could be of further assistance.

'€œHowever, when she arrived at the hotel room, she was suddenly handcuffed and held at gunpoint,'€ Guruh said.

Dedi and the two other suspects were already at the hotel room waiting for the victim to arrive, he went on. Dedi accused the victim of being involved in drug dealing, and searched through her belongings. The suspects seized the victim'€™s cell phone, and asked for Rp 1 million (US$73) in cash, continuing to threaten her.

The next day, the four took the victim to a hotel in Karawaci, Tangerang, where they raped her.

'€œRegarding Dedi'€™s status as a member of the police force, we will deal with his criminal case first. His membership of the police force will be dealt with by the Jakarta Police Internal Affairs Division,'€ Guruh said.

In 2013, the nation was shaken by the repeated rape, over the course of four months, of a 17-year-old high school student in Gorontalo, with the perpetrators including police officers. The girl was allegedly raped by nine police officers, as well as three security guards and one civilian. The main suspect, identified only as Brig. M, was sentenced to only three years and two months in prison, despite him being a member of the police and sexually assaulting an underage girl.

Separately, Uli Pangaribuan of the Legal Aid Institute of the Indonesian Women'€™s Association for Justice (LBH APIK) said that Dedi should receive a heavy sentence if proven guilty. Uli said that Dedi, a policeman whose task was to uphold the law and protect the public, not only allegedly broke the law but also violated the police'€™s code of ethics.

Uli called for a fair investigation, insisting that the case should be handled by the Jakarta Police as the incident took place in two hotels located in different areas.

'€œThe policeman [allegedly] violated the law and the ethics code. He should receive a heavy sentence and must be kicked out of the institution if proven guilty,'€ Uli told The Jakarta Post over the phone over the weekend.

She said that the four suspects could be charged under Article 285 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on rape. Dedi, she went on, may also have violated numerous articles in the police force'€™s ethics codes.

Uli said that LBH APIK would try to get in touch with the victim to support her. '€œThe victim needs both justice and help to recover from the trauma,'€ Uli said.