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The Depok District Court sentenced on Friday an 18-year-old student to five years in prison in an unprecedented court case involving a teenager standing trial for rape.
The panel of judges at the juvenile court said that DAN had been proven guilty of forcing sexual intercourse on his girlfriend, who was only 15 at the time.
The court also ordered the university student to pay a Rp 60 million (US$6,185) fine or serve an additional three months in jail.
Presiding judge Cepi Iskandar said the teen had violated Article 81 of Law No. 2/2002 on child protection for deceiving a minor into having sexual intercourse.
The law carries a maximum punishment of 15 years' imprisonment and a Rp 300 million fine.
"The defendant deceived the victim by saying that he would only check whether she was still a virgin and if she refused, the defendant would tell their friends that she was not a virgin," he read out the ruling in a hearing that lasted one hour.
DAN, who is the son of the deputy rector of a private Islamic university in Jakarta, also video taped the sexual intercourse and used it to threaten the victim whenever he wanted sex with her. He told her that if she refused, he would distribute the tape.
The hearing on Friday was open to the public, but previous sessions were not. Many of those who attended the hearing were shocked upon hearing the facts revealed, including that the defendant had forced himself on the victim 13 times since August through to December 2011. The girl, who fell pregnant, gave birth to a boy in June 2012.
The girl, who attended the hearing carrying her 8-month-old baby accompanied by her mother and sister, chased after DAN as he was walking out of the courtroom after the hearing. She demanded that he look at her son, but court bailiffs quickly ushered him to the prisoner's van.
"Look at your child. This is what you have done to me. You have ruined my life," yelled the girl.
The family said that because of her pregnancy, the girl had to drop out of school in Jakarta where she was a second year student. The family told the school that she was moving to Yogyakarta. However, DAN told her school friends that she had to leave school because she was pregnant.
Legal representatives of the defendant have decided to appeal to the high court, while the girl's lawyer, Siti Mazuma of the Women's Legal Aid Foundation (LBH APIK), intends to file with a civil court to obtain child support for her client.
"It's time to teach the defendant a lesson that he must bear responsibility for his child," she said.
The families had tried to settle the case out of court, but to no avail. The girl's family rejected a marriage offer as she would have had to live with the defendant's family, while the latter had refused to pay Rp 500,000 per month in child support, as requested.
The case was reported to police in January 2012 and went to court in July.
Teen rape cases yet to be brought to court
January 2013, Tangerang
The Tangerang Police arrested three teenagers identified only as E, 19, D, 18, and R, 17, for allegedly gang raping a 19-year-old dangdut singer, and confirmed they were searching for two other suspects. "One of the suspects confessed that E initiated the rape. E felt offended that [victim] had rejected him," detective chief Comr. Shinto Silitonga said. "The suspect said E planned to rape the victim, whom he had earlier made drunk. He also incited his friends to do the same."
January 2013, East Jakarta
An 11-year-old girl, identified as RI, died after allegedly being sexually abused. The Jakarta Police have named the biological father as a suspect in the case. RI was the youngest of six children in the family who lived in a trash pickers' slum in East Jakarta. An autopsy on the victim revealed that injuries had been caused by a blunt object in the vagina and rectum. A medical report also stated that the suspect had a sexually transmitted disease, which he had passed onto the victim.
October 2012, Depok
A 14-year-old girl in Depok, West Java, was reportedly kidnapped and repeatedly raped by a Facebook "friend". The victim is believed to be the latest on a long list of victims of an alleged human trafficking ring operating on widely used social media outlets. The girl had been reported missing for a week following a meet-up with a man she met through Facebook. The man, identified as Den Gilang alias Yugi who befriended mostly minors on Facebook, asked to meet her outside a department store on Sept. 23, where a public minivan with several of the man's friends on board was waiting. According to the victim's statement to police, they headed to a house in Parung, Bogor, where several other teenage girls were also being held. For one week, Yugi allegedly raped the victim, threatened to kill her and forced her to have sex with other men under the influence of alcohol.
February 2012, Bogor
A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by two public minivan drivers, identified as R and P, at a hotel in Puncak, Bogor, to the east of Jakarta. The victim was on her way home from school when she met R, 26, a neighbor who was an unlicensed public minivan driver. R promised to drive her home, but instead drove her to Puncak. R and P allegedly raped the girl in a hotel room. They threatened the victim not to tell her family about the attack. She, however, did tell her parents and they reported her case to the Bogor Police.
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