We’ve seen plenty of stories about vigilante mobs in Indonesia taking the law into their own hands, with the targets often being members of the LGBT community or unmarried couples, but we can’t recall another case like this in which the target of anger was an alleged sexual harasser.
Recently, pictures and videos showing a young man surrounded by a mob and tied to a tree on the campus of Gunadarma University in Depok, one of Jakarta’s satellite cities, have gone viral on social media.
A Twitter thread posted on Monday containing multiple pictures and video from the incident, including one purporting to show the young man being forced to drink urine, alleges that he is a student at the university who sexually harassed another student.
A spokesperson for the Depok Police confirmed that the man in the video has been arrested for sexual harassment and placed in custody, but did not provide further details regarding the charges against him.
The viral thread includes a statement, purportedly written by the victim of the man’s harassment, that had previously been posted anonymously to an Instagram account focused on campus news.
According to the statement, the harassment occurred on Dec. 2 on the university’s campus when the young man, whom the victim had considered a friend, invited her to meet for food. After they chatted for some time, he lured her into a bathroom and forcibly kissed her without her consent.
Another university student told Detik that the young man was angered by the Instagram post and demanded that it be taken down. After word got around about his behavior, the vigilante mob tracked him down and tied him to the tree.
There have been several high-profile cases of sexual harassment and abuse at universities in Indonesia recently that have garnered controversy over allegations that the universities attempted to cover up the incidents.
In 2019, a case involving an alleged rape by a student at the prestigious Gajah Madah University received a great deal of attention due to accusations that the university officials had failed to punish the perpetrator. The university claims the case was resolved “peacefully“.
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