The lawsuit was filed by one of the parents of the school’s students, who in 2014 accused school staff of sexually abusing her child.

The civil lawsuit filed in September last year named 10 defendants — seven people and three institutions. They were Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman, Indonesian teacher’s assistant Ferdinant Tjiong and five former janitors at JIS who were outsourced from PT Indonesia Servant Service (ISS). The three institutions were the JIS Foundation, PT ISS and the Education and Culture Ministry.

Through the lawsuit, the plaintiff, identified only as MAK, demanded the court order the defendants to pay Rp 1.7 trillion (US$121.5 million) in material and psychological losses to the victim’s family, among other things. The lawsuit also demanded the ministry shut down JIS.

However, the panel of judges in Tuesday’s hearing ruled that the case would not proceed after the court accepted exceptions or objections by the defendants’ lawyers.

The exceptions mainly argued that closing down a school was not the authority of a district court but of a state administrative court.

“The exceptions presented by the defendants’ lawyers are reasonable and accepted,” presiding Judge Lenny Wati Mulasimadhi said.

“The court orders the plaintiff to pay Rp 4 million in court fees,” she added.

JIS’ lawyer, Bontor Tobing, said he was relieved by the decision and said, “JIS is a reputable educational institution. There’s no need to close down the school.”

Representing Bantleman, Ferdinant and the five former janitors, lawyer Richard Riwoe echoed Bontor, saying, “Once again justice has been served.”

He shot down the demand for compensation that the plaintiff claimed was to cover medical expenses to treat a sexually transmitted disease that her child had as a result of abuse.

“While in fact, during the trial, the plaintiff failed to mention what diseases they were. Plus none of the defendants has any [sexually transmitted] diseases,” Richard said.

Richard also recalled that in 2014, when the legal proceedings for the alleged crime had just commenced, the same plaintiff demanded that JIS pay $125 million in compensation, which was equal to Rp 1.6 trillion back then. The demand was rejected by the court.

Richard said the five former JIS cleaning staff members had returned to their families, lived in Jakarta and had found other jobs. None of them attended Tuesday’s hearing.

Separately, the lawyer of the plaintiff, Ibnu Setyo Astomo, said he was not satisfied with the court’s decision. He said the panel of judges had failed to address all points in the lawsuit and focused only on the demand to shut down JIS.

“My client and I will discuss our next legal step; whether we will appeal or file another lawsuit,” Ibnu said.

The case first came to light when the mother of a JIS kindergartner filed a police report on April 14, 2014, claiming that her son had been sexually abused in the school by a number of staff members. She said bruises had been found on her son’s stomach and backside on March 20.

The police declared six outsourced janitors from PT ISS suspects. They were Agun, Virgiawan Amin, Zainal Abidin, Syahrial, Afrischa Setyani and Azwar. Azwar, however, allegedly committed suicide while in police custody.

The five cleaners maintained their innocence, claiming that police officers had used violence to force them to confess to the crime.

Popular

Great Barrier Reef hit by record bleaching

Govt to undo latest curbs on personal imports

Middle East on edge as Israel and Iran trade threats