Two young men in East Luwu regency, South Sulawesi were arrested by the police after they allegedly forced a toddler to down an alcoholic drink.
The incident came to light after a video of the incident circulated on social media. Two clips were uploaded to Facebook yesterday, with the unidentified poster urging others to spread the videos in order to catch the two perpetrators.
The men have since been identified as 20-year-old FE and 19-year-old MRH. According to the police, FE is the one talking to the young boy in the clips while MRH was behind the camera.
One of the clips showed FE ordering the boy to drink a wine-like beverage, which was then poured into a plastic cup. The boy obeyed, and FE poured the drink again for the boy a couple more times.
“Okay great, now continue playing again,” they told the boy afterwards.
The second video took a disturbing turn, as the boy was stumbling and losing his balance until he fell onto a stack of wooden blocks and screamed. FE and MRH reacted by laughing during the incident, with the boy continuously trying to stand up, only to fall down every time.
Police arrested FE and MRH at their homes in a village in Towuti district yesterday, shortly after the video circulated online. They confessed to having forced the boy to drink an alcoholic beverage and later uploading video of the incident to a Facebook group.
East Luwu Police’s Crime Unit Chief Elli Kendek said the two men were “shocked” because they didn’t expect to be dealing with the authorities for what they did. Meanwhile, East Luwu Police Chief Indratmoko said that both FE and MRH are currently unemployed and are frequent drinkers.
According to reports, FE told the police that he was just messing around when the boy approached them while they were having a drink. He was charged with articles under Indonesia’s Child Protection Law, which carry maximum sentences of 15 years in prison or a IDR5 billion fine.
As the person who filmed the incident, MRH was charged with deliberately sharing content considered to be in violation of decency under the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE), which carries maximum sentences of six years in prison or a IDR1 billion fine.
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