The shocking image of the injuries sustained by Jessica Setia, a 21-year-old Indonesian student studying in South Korea, during an assault by a club bouncer on Friday night has netizens expressing their outrage from Busan (where the incident took place) to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.
Jessica’s case is still under investigation by the Busan Seomyeon Police, but Indonesian officials in Seoul have taken note of the incident and have already contacted her to provide assistance.
“Since last Sunday we have been able to get information about this problem directly from Jessica… At that time, we also started discussions with the concerned and related parties including the police,” Muhamad Aji Surya, the Information and Cultural Affairs Officer at the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul, told Okezone on Monday.
He added that the Embassy in Seoul has contacted Jessica’s parents in Indonesia. Muhamad hoped the case would be completed soon so that Jessica could return to college.
Muhamad said the embassy would also provide her assistance when she went to meet with the police in Busan today.
In an interview with the Korean Herald, Jessica said the incident started because the bouncer was rude and “being so racist to us without any reason.”
“They let my friends, who hold Korean nationality, in easily. And when it comes to me and my Indonesian friend, he made it difficult (for us to enter the club,)” Jessica said, adding that she had only pushed the bouncer after he had pushed her friend Gabrielle to the ground.
The club gave a very different account of the incident, one in which no discrimination took place and the bouncer had only defended himself after Jessica had cursed and shook her fist at him.
A police officer from the team in charge of the initial investigation into the incident said the bouncer had claimed Jessica assaulted him as well.
“The man argues that it was a two-way assault. Due to the fight, the left side of his cheek became swollen, according to our investigation. We are going to further investigate the case on Monday,” the officer said as quoted by the Korea Herald.
