An Islamic boarding school teacher, identified as Jerry Wirawan is lucky to avoid death penalty as he was instead jailed for life for raping thirteen pupils and impregnating nine of them in Indonesia, he was sentenced Feb.15 2022.
According to the judge, the teacher had sexually groomed the 13 girls, who were between 12 and 16 years old, and had impregnated at nine of his victims, some of whom suffered injuries from the rapes.
The deadly act has been ongoing from 2016 to 2021 at the school, in hotel rooms or at rented apartments, according to the indictment, and nine babies was born as the report of the rapes.
According to Judge Yohannes Purnomo Suryo Adi told the court in the city of Bandung in West Java, he said: “Wirawan was proven guilty…of the crimes of purposely committing violence, forcing intercourse on more than one victim repeatedly”
Indonesian officials, including the country’s child protection minister, backed calls for the death penalty, though the country’s human rights commission, which opposes the death penalty, said it was not appropriate.
Wirawan arrived in court in handcuffs and kept his head down as the judge sentenced him. The court said restitution for the victims will be paid by the government.
The chairman of Indonesia’s Child Protection Commission said Tuesday’s verdict meant ‘justice for the victims has been served’.
A family member of one of the victims told AFP news agency that he was very disappointed that Wirawan didn’t received death penality.
Hidmat Dijaya said: “This wound will never be healed as long as we live, maybe until we die. The pain we are feeling is indescribable. We don’t feel heard”
“f I the sentence is lenient like this, there will be more Islamic teachers who will abuse children,”
“We will let God as the highest judge punish him. We can only pray because those judges failed to represent our hurt and pain”
They also ordered the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection to pay 331 million rupiah ($23,200) in combined compensation requested by the victims and between $600 and $6,000 for medical and psychological treatment for each girl.
The judge said: “The defendant deliberately committed violence and obscene acts,Instead of educating his students, he resorted to violence or threats of violence to force children to have sexual intercourse with him”.
The judges also ruled that nine children born to the victims should be handed over to the Children and Women Protection Agency with periodic evaluation until the victims are mentally ready to care for their children, and the situation allows for their children to be returned to the victims.