TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Husband tells court about family's mental health issues

Firdaus Situngkir carefully explained the state of his wife Suzethe Margaret’s mental health during a trial hearing at Cibinong District Court in Bogor regency, West Java, on Wednesday

Theresia Sufa and Vela Andapita (The Jakarta Post)
Bogor/Jakarta
Sat, October 19, 2019

Share This Article

Change Size

Husband tells court about family's mental health issues

F

span>Firdaus Situngkir carefully explained the state of his wife Suzethe Margaret’s mental health during a trial hearing at Cibinong District Court in Bogor regency, West Java, on Wednesday.

Suzethe made headlines earlier this year after she made a fuss at a mosque in Sentul, Bogor regency, believing that her husband was marrying another woman inside the mosque.

She entered the mosque while wearing shoes and accompanied by her pet dog. The incident shocked members of the mosque congregation and netizens who found out about the incident through an amateur video that went viral on social media.

The local police were quick to charge Suzethe with blasphemy following public outcry, despite a preliminary diagnosis that the woman was suffering from schizophrenia.

Firdaus submitted to the panel of judges documents that confirmed the diagnosis, including records of outpatient treatment from psychiatrists at two different hospitals; H. Marzoeki Mahdi Hospital and Bogor Siloam Hospital.

“A month prior to the incident or around May this year, Suzethe kept asking me, ‘you’re planning to marry Eli, aren’t you?’” Firdaus said.

The question came out of the blue, he added, because neither of them knew anyone called Eli in their circle of friends. He believed that Eli was a figment of Suzethe’s imagination created by her condition.

On the day of incident on June 30, Firdaus and Suzethe’s twins were celebrating their 19th birthday. At 8 a.m. Firdaus left home to go to church until 1 p.m.

As soon as he reached home, Firdaus said, Suzethe immediately grabbed the car keys and rushed out, followed by her dog. She said she wanted to go to a bakery to buy a birthday cake for their twins, although in fact they already had one.

Firdaus claimed that although he was alarmed at seeing Suzethe driving the car on her own he thought that preventing Suzethe from leaving would upset her more.

A few hours later, according to Firdaus, Suzethe came home with several police officers. The officers told him that his wife had entered a mosque along with her dog. “The moment I heard the officers’ explanation to me about what had happened, I felt dizzy; I didn’t know what to do. I only knew that it would be a major problem,” he told the judges.

Suzethe had been prescribed medication that she should take on a daily basis to prevent her schizophrenia from recurring.

During the hearing, Firdaus added that their twin sons also suffered from developmental and mental problems, with one of them being diagnosed with autism.

“My other son who is now studying at university one day asked me to bring him to a psychiatrist. He said he always felt suicidal,” he said.

The court also summoned two other witnesses to the hearing; the head of neighborhood unit (RT) 02 of Bukit Golf Hijau, Jimi Humais, and an expert from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in Bogor in West Java, Ahmad Ibnu Atholiya.

Suzethe’s lawyer, Alfonsus Atu Kota, had previously responded to the public’s negative reaction to the incident and the way that it had been simplified into a religious and ethnic issue.

“Suzethe has been living with schizophrenia since 2013. [...] We have the medical records although, if asked, she would say she is not sick. This might sound like nonsense, but that’s how mental illness manifests itself,” he said recently.

A psychiatrist at Udayana University, Luh Ketut Suryani, called on psychiatric organizations and medical associations to take action to support Suzethe.

Suryani said that such support was important to assist people with mental disorders and to prevent other people with mental health issues from facing criminal charges.

“The judges have to take seriously expert analysis and proof from hospitals. This case should never have reached court in the first place,” she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Suryani referred to Article 44 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates that a person cannot be held legally responsible for their behavior if they have mental-health issues.

“[Suzethe] can’t be the one to blame. She was not being herself because she is sick. There are voices inside the head of a schizophrenic person. Sending her to jail will only create more problems,” she added.

According to Suryani, schizophrenia is among the most severe m ental disorders and that sufferers must undergo therapy to treat the core causes of the illness, which could be childhood trauma or other past traumatic experiences.

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.