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Seven named suspects for allegedly hiring underage girls as strippers, masseuses
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A neon sign of a red light district. (Shutterstock.com/File)
C
entral Java Police arrested seven suspects allegedly involved in employing young girls as strippers, masseuses and karaoke hostesses in four locations in the province’s red light districts.
In the arrest, the investigators from the adolescent, children and women directorate of the Central Java Police also rescued 10 girls aged 15 to 17 years.
The police arrested the suspects in a sting operation on March 2, 9 and 15 in two karaoke places in the Sunan Kuning red light district, a spa in MT. Haryono in Semarang and a karaoke place in Pemalang, Central Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Djarod Padakova said on Monday.
The girls had been transferred to a shelter managed by the provincial Women Empowerment, Children Protection, Population Control and Family Planning Agency.
The seven suspects are Dimas Putra, 23, Lilik Sutrimo S, 22, Purwanto, 46, Ghadinia Petra Anindika, 26, Sri Wahyuni, 36, Muchammad Soleh, 47, and Defdi Dwantoro, 43.
Strippers who work in the Sunan Kuning red light district get Rp 400,000 (US$30) per hour, while a karaoke hostess gets Rp 20,000 per hour.
(Read also: Indonesia to close all red-light districts by 2019)
Police charged the suspects under the 2008 law on pornography, the 2014 law on economy and sexual exploitation of children and the 2007 law on human trafficking. They face prison time of up to 15 years and fines of up to Rp 200 million if convicted.
The case was only the tip of an iceberg in the province, an agency official, Hanityo, said adding that there were few reports of similar cases. He cited that five cases of underage children exploitation were reported every month last year.
“In reality, the figure would be bigger than that,” he said.
