H

uman rights and judicial watchdogs have claimed that a child abuse case that led to the imprisonment of teachers and janitors at the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) violated the standards of justice by prosecuting people without solid evidence.

A joint examination held by the commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and University of Indonesia'€™s Judicial Watch Society (MaPPI) found that violations had been committed from when the six cleaners were named suspects by the Jakarta Police to when the guilty verdict was delivered by the court. One cleaner died while in police custody, which the police claimed was a suicide.

Haris Azhar from Kontras said on Tuesday the violations included using unreliable forensic examination techniques as evidence during the trial and the allegations that police tortured the six janitors and forced them to confess to the crime of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old child.

'€œTo make it worse, the judge made the session closed-door, which ensured that all these questionable things didn'€™t leak to the public,'€ Haris told reporters during a press conference.

Furthermore, Haris slammed the judges'€™ decision to let mothers of the victims play an active role in the children'€™s giving of testimony on the witness stand, saying that it could potentially result in manufactured statements.

'€œRepresentatives or parents of child victims must undergo an examination to prove they are capable of representing the children,'€ he said.

In December last year, five cleaners were sentenced to seven and eight years'€™ imprisonment for collaborating with others and repeatedly sexually abusing a minor at the school. The five were planning to file a judicial review as their appeal had been turned down by the Jakarta High Court and The Supreme Court.

During the first hearing of the trial at the district court, four male cleaners who accused the police of torturing them retracted their confession, which had made up the majority of their indictment.

The police have denied the cleaners'€™ allegations that they were tortured.

Only limited information on the trial is available as the law stipulates that any trial involving an underage person must be held behind closed doors.

The case also implicated Ferdinant Tjiong and Neil Bantleman, two teachers at the school, and on April 2 the South Jakarta District Court slapped them with a 10-year sentence for sexually abusing three children at the school.

However, the two teachers were acquitted on Aug. 15 this year after the Jakarta High Court granted their appeal, saying that the lower court have made '€œshallow, inaccurate and not thorough consideration'€ in declaring both guilty.

Choky Ramadhan from MaPPI told the press conference that the Jakarta High Court had made the correct decision by releasing the two teachers, adding that there were too many doubts relating to the case to declare them guilty.

For example, he said that the forensics examination carried out at the National Police Said Sukanto Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, found bruises on the three alleged victims of the teachers, which contrasted with earlier examinations carried out at the same hospital, which found no bruises or signs of violence.

'€œA medical expert told me that in any case of multiple forensics examinations, the first results must be considered the most accurate as they are carried out within the nearest time with the alleged criminal act,'€ he said.

Contacted separately by The Jakarta Post, the prosecutor who brought Ferdinant and Bantleman to court, Shandy Handika, said that despite the watchdogs'€™ claim, the South Jakarta District Court had found them guilty and that he was certain the Supreme Court would reach the same verdict.

'€œI understand that the high court had a different opinion from us and the district court, but I believe the Supreme Court will overturn the acquittal,'€ he told The Jakarta Post.