Yesterday several high ranking government officials held a meeting to discuss the ruling in the infamous Jakarta Intercultural School sex abuse case, which has been severely criticized by many, including several foreign governments, due to the widespread perception that the case was unjustly adjudicated.
The meeting was chaired by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, and was attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno LP Marsudi, National Police Chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti, as well as Head Jakarta Prosecutor Sudung Situmorang.
The conclusion from the meeting was that the Indonesian government would not allow any foreign government to intervene in the country’s legal system, nor would the government intervene on their behalf.
“We wanted to straighten this out so that foreigners or foreign countries do not try to comment on or criticize the problems of our judicial system to the point of doubting how our security apparatus handles things,” Luhut said at the Presidential Palace Complex yesterday as quoted by Kompas.
Luhut’s comments were directed specifically towards the Canadian government, which has been especially vocal in its criticisms of the ruling in the JIS case in defense of their citizen, teacher Neil Bantleman, who has been sentenced to 11 years for supposedly sexually abusing one of his students at the school.
The security minister did not specifically address the Canadian government’s objections to the ruling, but stated that the Supreme Court’s decision on the matter was final and that the only way the decision could be overturned was through a judicial review based on new evidence.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi did say that the Canadian government had requested a copy of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the JIS case, which they received earlier this month. However she made it very clear that neither the Canadian nor Indonesian government could be allowed to intervene in the Indonesian court’s ruling.
“This is a legal case and, as we know that all the democratic countries, including in Canada and Indonesia, the government can not interfere in an ongoing legal process,” she said.
Bantleman and Ferdinand Tjiong, an Indonesian citizen and fellow JIS teacher, were both convicted in a Jakarta court of sexually abusing students at the international school and were given 10 year sentences. That ruling was later overturned on appeal, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision and resentenced both teachers to 11 years in prison. The original case was fraught with allegations of corrupt adjudication and lack of evidence. Five members of the school’s janitorial staff were also convicted of sexually abusing a student in a similarly criticized decision and remain behind bars.
