After four days of searching, police in Depok, West Java, have finally identified and arrested a man suspected of grabbing an unsuspecting woman’s breast before driving off on a in an incident that was caught on video and went viral recently.
The police say that the suspect, identified by his initial I (29), was apprehended last night and was accompanied by his parents when he was brought in to a police station for questioning. The suspect has confessed to groping the woman’s breast in the video, but the police are questioning him further to find out how many women he has targeted.
“The suspect did not know the victim. He chose his victims randomly. When carrying out the act the suspect wore a motorcycle taxi uniform,” said Putu Kholis Aryana, head of the Crime Investigation Unit at the Depok City Police, as quoted by Okezone last night.
The suspect has been charged with indecency under the KUHP (Criminal Code), which is punishable by up to 2 years and 8 months’ imprisonment.
The victim, identified as Amanda (22), was walking alone on a narrow alleyway in Depok last Thursday. The suspect came up from behind her and groped her before driving off.
“I could only scream, my body shook and I was crying. At the time there weren’t other people around,” Amanda told Okezone.
“I can only say thank god that the police quickly arrested the suspect. I can’t wait to meet the suspect tomorrow. With the suspect arrested, at least the bitter experience I had will not befall others.”
“If he asks for peace (for her to drop the charges after an apology), I will not accept it. The law is the law.”
In Indonesia, many women routinely run the risk of being sexually harassed in public places, with many female pedestrians experiencing harassment ranging from cat calling to physical assault on a daily basis.
One of our most popular articles last year was written by guest writer Kate Walton, a woman’s rights activist living in Jakarta, who wrote an eye-opening piece about a social experiment in which she live-tweeted getting sexually harassed 13 times on her brief walk from her home to a mall.
The result inspired many women in the capital and around Indonesia to share similar experiences, indicating that it’s a hardship they all face when they’re out in public on a daily basis, no matter how modestly they dress (Amanda, for example, was wearing a hijab at the time of the assault).
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