Police in South Tangerang arrested an alleged rapist over the weekend, almost a year since the sexual assault, off the back of a viral social media post by the victim detailing the allegations.
On Friday, a resident of Bintaro, who went by the handle @amyfitria.s on Instagram, posted that she was raped by a man named Raffi Idzamallah AKA Gondes at her home on Aug. 13, 2019 and suffered psychological abuse since.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDkVdp5AUYk/
“It has almost been a year for me to finally take up the courage to talk about this event that has been haunting me until this day. I would not have done this if the police would have taken action, but by law I do not have enough evidence to put this fucker into jail so all I can do is expose him,” @amyfitria.s wrote in the beginning of her post.
The victim then shared details about the incident that took place almost a year ago. According to her, Gondes broke into her house when she was alone and sleeping in the morning. He then woke her up and bashed her in the head with a metallic object, knocking her almost unconscious.
“I saw he was holding a knife and I was pleading him to not kill me, he told me to stay quiet and proceeded to sexually assault me (yes, the r word),” she continued.
The alleged culprit then left the house before the victim eventually ran outside to ask for help. The victim was sent to a hospital for an inspection and filed a police report, but the police did not immediately act then, allowing her rapist to continue psychologically terrorizing her.
“Also that very same day he decided to text me, first trying to apologize then once again threatening me because he “let me live,” she wrote, sharing screen captures of DMs on Instagram by the rapist. One of the most outrageous taunting messages she shared was one in which he asked her, “is your belly big yet?”
Even though the victim claimed that the police did not arrest Gondes last year due to a lack of evidence, there’s apparently enough now to justify his arrest yesterday.
“He’s been captured,” South Tangerang Police Chief Imam Setiawan said yesterday.
The police have charged Gondes with rape and theft under the Penal Code, which are punishable by up to 12 years and 9 years in prison, respectively.
We have reached out to @amyfitria.s for her comment on Gondes’ arrest.
This would not be the first time authorities in Indonesia took a sexual assault case seriously only after details about the case went viral. For that reason, lack of evidence and the stigma surrounding victims of sexual abuse in Indonesia, many victims still do not report incidents to the police.
This story has been updated to include the charges against the alleged rapist.
