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False report may discredit sexual violence victims
Women’s rights activists are scrutinizing the failed attempt to cover up the murder of Brig. Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat with a sexual-harassment claim, insisting it would be detrimental to actual victims.
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Putri Candrawathi (right), the wife of the National Police's former chief of internal affairs, Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo (left), was named a suspect in the murder of Brig. Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat on Aug. 12. The police initially began the murder investigation under Putri's claim that she had been harassed by Yosua, but women's rights activists insist Ferdy might have taken advantage of his wife to save himself. (Tribunnews/-)
A allegedly false report filed by Putri Candrawathi purportedly to save her embattled former police general husband has undeniably shaken Indonesia’s women’s rights movement, following her surprising role reversal from an alleged victim of sexual violence to a suspected accessory to premeditated murder.
Rights activists are now concerned that the sexual assault scenario, which was found to be a cover-up for the murder of Brig. Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat by his commanding officer, Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo, could further undermine public trust in victims of sexual harassment and deter real survivors from seeking help.
The sexual harassment plot, in which Yosua gets killed in a shootout with another police officer after allegedly attempting to sexually assault Putri, was discarded after police discovered it was made up to mislead the investigation.
“Putri’s report is part of an effort to cover up the case,” said the criminal investigation department’s (Bareskrim) director for general crimes, Brig. Gen. Andi Rian Djajadi, on Aug. 12, as quoted by Tempo.co.
The plot would have served to frame the murder as a crime of passion, especially after Putri’s husband Ferdy, the National Police’s former internal affairs chief, was named and detained as a suspect.
The police named Putri its latest suspect over the weekend, after she acknowledged following through with her husband’s cover-up plot. She now faces charges of premeditated murder and second-degree murder, which carry the maximum penalty of death or life in prison.
The case, already considered the biggest police scandal in the country’s history, has caught the attention of some women’s groups due to the power dynamics in Putri’s domestic relationship, which reportedly led Ferdy to take advantage of his wife to claim victimhood as a pretext for murder.
