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Teacher taken from home at night, police search for second

Six months ago, Sisca Tjiong could not hold back her tears when she saw her husband Ferdinant walk free from a penitentiary after he had been cleared of sexual abuse charges, but before dawn on Thursday, her tears poured down again for all the wrong reasons

Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, February 26, 2016

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Teacher taken from home at night, police search for second

S

ix months ago, Sisca Tjiong could not hold back her tears when she saw her husband Ferdinant walk free from a penitentiary after he had been cleared of sexual abuse charges, but before dawn on Thursday, her tears poured down again for all the wrong reasons.

Sisca, Ferdinant and their two daughters were sleeping on the second floor of their house when officials from the prosecutor'€™s office pounded on a window near the bed at around 2 a.m.

'€œOne of them carried a gun, another one had a camera and started taking pictures. It'€™s like they were dealing with a dangerous criminal,'€ said Sisca, recalling the incident.

Sisca said she had tried her best to hold them back and asked to call Ferdinant'€™s lawyer to accompany him. However, the request fell on deaf ears with the officers from the South Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office.

'€œI could not go with my husband, because someone had to stay in the house and explain all this craziness to my daughters,'€ she continued, adding that she had yet to meet her husband, as Ferdinant had been prohibited from receiving visitors that day.

South Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office spokesman Chandra Saptaji confirmed the dawn arrest, claiming the prosecutor'€™s office had the authority to do so, as the Supreme Court had granted a cassation filed by the prosecutor.

'€œWe have received the official excerpt of the ruling, and that is more than enough to take them in,'€ Chandra told The Jakarta Post.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court overturned the acquittal of Ferdinant and Canadian national Neil Bantleman in a case of child sexual abuse at the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) and sentenced each of them to 11 years in prison for their involvement.

The panel of judges, chaired by Justice Artidjo Alkostar, declared them guilty of the abuse of three kindergarten students at the prestigious school where they taught.

On April 2, 2015, the South Jakarta District Court sentenced Bantleman and Ferdinant to 10 years, imprisonment in a controversial trial.

Both have maintained their innocence, and their lawyers have said the charges lacked evidence.

The conviction was then overturned by the Jakarta High Court on Aug. 14, which declared that the district court had made a '€œshallow, inaccurate and not thorough consideration'€ in pronouncing the two teachers guilty of sexual abuse.

Chandra urged Bantleman to turn himself in. '€œWe are still looking for Bantleman, but he should turn himself in if he respects our law,'€ he said.

Contacted separately, Patra M. Zen, who represented Ferdinant and Bantleman, said he would study the Supreme Court verdict first, but emphasized that a judicial review would be filed as soon as possible.

Patra also criticized the prosecutor'€™s decision to take Ferdinant in the middle of the night without notifying him first. '€œFerdinant is a school teaching assistant; why was he treated like a terrorist?'€ he asked.

US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert Blake expressed his disappointment over the Supreme Court'€™s verdict, saying that '€œit is not clear what evidence the Supreme Court used to overturn the high court'€™s decision.'€

The US Embassy in Jakarta is one of the founding embassies of JIS, along with the British and Australian embassies.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion also said in a statement that his government was deeply dismayed and shocked by the unjust verdict. '€œMr. Bantleman and Mr. Tjiong were not provided the opportunity to demonstrate their innocence. Despite Canada'€™s repeated calls for due process, this case was not handled in a fair and transparent manner,'€ he said as quoted by AFP.

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