The Surabaya High Court has added a few extra years to the sentence of a cop who forced abortions on his girlfriend, which led to her suicide.
Randy Bagus Hari Sasongko was sentenced to two years in prison in April. Upon appeal by public prosecutors, the high court at the East Java capital raised his prison sentence to five years on June 17, the decision for which was made public yesterday.
The 22-year-old was found guilty of forced abortion, which is punishable by up to 5.5 years in prison under the KUHP (Criminal Code). Abortion is illegal in Indonesia except in certain special circumstances, such as in cases where the pregnancy resulted from a rape or threatens the life of the mother.
When the story of Randy’s crime broke in December 2021, there were witness accounts that the cop also raped the victim, 23-year-old Novia Widyasari Rahayu, during their relationship. Police did not confirm the rape allegations and Randy was never tried for sexual assault.
Authorities said Randy and Novia had dated since 2019 and that the latter got pregnant twice in March 2020 and August 2021. Both times, she was reportedly forced to abort her pregnancies.
A Twitter user claiming to be one of Novia’s close friends laid out some details about the disturbing relationship, including how Randy had taken Novia to a lodging and forced her to down a drug that made her drowsy. Four months after that incident, Novia realized she was pregnant and went to Randy about the matter, only to be told repeatedly to abort her pregnancy.
Novia’s ordeal was compounded with the coercion coming from Randy’s family, and she was later forced to take pills that eventually caused her to lose her baby. When she later told her family about the pregnancy and forced abortion, she was met with anger by her uncles who accused her of “bringing shame into their family” and even threatened to kill the young woman.
Novia sadly took her own life by drinking poison, following bouts of depression and immense pressure from the people around her. Her body was found next to her father’s grave in Mojokerto regency, East Java on Dec. 2, 2021.
Indonesia currently does not have a dedicated government-run suicide prevention hotline, but if you or anyone you know is suffering from depression and/or contemplating suicide, you can get more information and resources from several local NGOs dealing with mental health and suicide prevention, such as intothelightid.org.
