Yesterday’s news that the Supreme Court had overturned the acquittals granted to Jakarta Intercultural School teachers Neil Bantleman and Ferdinand Tjiong by the Jakarta High Court in the highly-criticised JIS sex abuse case was seen by many as an unbelievable reversal of justice, sending shockwaves through the international community (representatives of both the United States and Canadian governments have issued statements blasting the Supreme Court’s decision).
With the country’s highest court having spoken, it appears that the only legal avenue left by which the teachers can gain their freedom is through a judicial review, which would require them to submit new evidence.
Bantleman’s brother, Guy, confirmed to CBC that his family plans to apply for a judicial review and will introduce new evidence, including information found by a CBC Fifth Estate investigation into the case.
That new evidence will have to be significant to sway the Supreme Court, who apparently did not take any new evidence into consideration when it decided to overturn the Jakarta High Court’s acquittal. Supreme Court Justice Suhadi stating that the South Jakarta District Court’s original decision (which the Jakarta High Court had called a “shallow, inaccurate and not thorough consideration”) had been found to be “appropriate” by the Supreme Court Panel of judges.
If the judicial review were to fail, there is one other recourse that the Bantleman and Ferdinand would have left – appealing directly to President Joko Widodo for clemency.
However, as Papang Hidayat, an Indonesia-based researcher with Amnesty International, told the Star, “it’s very rare, actually, for ordinary cases like this for the president to get involved at all.” The constitution also only allows for a president to make such a decision after he has listened to “the advice of the Supreme Court”.
After the Supreme Court’s decision, both Bantleman and Ferdinand have been returned to police custody. Ferdinand was taken from his home by officers at 2am on Thursday morning, while Bantleman surrendered himself to authorities later in the day.
