Another cleric accused of sexual assault

Wahyoe Boediwardhana ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Blitar   |  Wed, 01/14/2009 3:48 PM  |  National

A cleric in Blitar is being investigated by police over the alleged sexual assault of 16 female students of an Islamic boarding school in the regency, in a similar case to one in Surabaya last year.

Blitar Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Putu Jayan Danuputra said Tuesday the cleric could be detained after the completion of a preliminary investigation into the case.

"The suspect is still undergoing an intensive investigation and he will certainly be detained if the complaints filed by the victims are found to be true during the interrogation," he told The Jakarta Post.

Putu said if the suspect was found guilty he would be brought to court to face charges of breaching Chapter 335 of the Criminal Code and Law No. 23/2002 on child protection, and could face a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.

He said police had questioned the cleric when he was seeking clarification on a media report on the case from the police and had named the man a suspect when following up complaints lodged by the victims' relatives.

"Before his arrival, we planned to summon the cleric. But because he came to the police office on his own initiative, a marathon investigation is being conducted and is still underway," Putu said.

In a similar case last year, Surabaya Police detained a cleric who was accused of sexually abusing 25 female students of his pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Kedung Pakem subdistrict in September, but reportedly the police investigation into the case has made no progress.

Oyik Rudi Hidayat, the detained cleric's lawyer, declined to give detailed comments on the case, saying only that his client was not guilty.

The case came to light when two students of a pesantren and an orphanage house belonging to the suspect reported the alleged sexual assault to the police Sunday, accompanied by residents living near the pesantren in Gading village, Selupuro district. The two students, both aged 16, said they were victims of a sexual assault committed by the cleric in 2007 and 2008.

One of the girls said she was assaulted when she was asked to come into the cleric's house to massage him. She claimed he molested her during the visit.

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