In mid-November, disturbing videos showing several men forcing a young unmarried couple in Tangerang to strip naked before parading them on the street as punishment for alleged “immoral acts” went viral on Indonesian social media. The young woman’s hysterical cries for mercy in the video are utterly horrific, but they did not move any of the men in the video to stop their vicious crime.
But tears were shed yesterday by Komarudin, one of the men charged with participating in the indecent assault, after he heard the prosecutor in his criminal trial demand that he be sent to jail for 7 years for what he had done.
Komarudin was the head of the neighborhood (RT) that the young couple lived in. He, along with five other men, were arrested by the police for their actions towards the couple on November 11 and were charged with assault as well as violating Indonesia’s pornography law for causing and filming the couple’s indecent exposure.
According to multiple media accounts, Komarudin teared up yesterday upon hearing the prosecutor’s 7-year sentencing demand, which was heavier than the 4 years demanded for four of the other suspects and 2 years demanded for one. Unlike the others, the former RT was also charged with violating a law on persecution.
Komarudin did not answer when the judge asked if he had any response to the prosecutor’s demand and left the courtroom shortly after with his hand covering his mouth. Later his defense attorney said the sentencing demand was too harsh and that his client would defend his actions as a matter of “conscience”.
Those actions began on November 11 when people in the neighborhood saw the male victim entering the female victim’s house. According to the police, he was only bringing food over to his fiance’s house before it was raided by the group of men and they were forced to say that they had been getting intimate out of wedlock after being assaulted by the moral vigilantes.
As shown in the videos, the visibly distressed couple were then forced outside onto the street by the men, who continued to berate them for being indecent. While the woman had a t-shirt on at the beginning of the video, the men soon forcefully stripped her completely naked, despite her ear-piercing screams for mercy. The couple were also beaten on several occasions while they were paraded 400 meters — an ordeal which lasted for about an hour.
Police said that the vigilantes also deliberately took photos and recorded the public humiliation so that they could post them online, in further violation of Indonesia’s pornography laws.
Authorities told the media that the couple were given psychological counseling for their trauma. They also got married less than two weeks after the incident – they had already been engaged before but had not set a wedding date – which police said would hopefully help “alleviate” their trauma (its not clear if the couple chose to got married so soon after or if they were pressured into it).
Parades of shame for adulterers or anyone found getting intimate outside of wedlock are sadly common in parts of Indonesia, especially in rural areas, and the abusers often escape any criminal charges. In August, a couple who had allegedly committed adultery were paraded through the streets of a village in East Java, only for the police to charge the man for adultery but not the neighborhood busybodies who abused the couple.
