Alleged pedophile faces up to 15 years jail

Alleged pedophile faces up to 15 years jail

Agence France Presse, Jakarta

A French man faces up to 15 years' jail if found guilty on charges he had sex with underaged boys in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, a judge said on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Made Subawa on Tuesday accused Michel Rene Heller, 56, of paedophilia using force or threats under a 2002 child protection law and of similar offenses under the penal code, Judge Syahab Sihombing told AFP.

Sihombing is one of three judges who opened the trial of Heller at the state district court of Bali's Karangasem district on Tuesday.

He said violation of the 2002 law carries between three and 15 years' jail and fines of 60 million to 300 million rupiah (6,250- 31,250 dollars) while the penal code offense carries up to seven years in jail.

The prosecutor, according to Sihombing, charged that the defendant committed the crimes from 2001 to 2003 on at least three boys, all aged 14, at his private beach villa in Karangasem.

The defendant's lawyer had argued that his client could not be judged under a 2002 law for an offense allegedly committed in 2001, Sihombing said.

"We will determine whether the acts were conducted only in 2001 or up until 2003 after we have heard all witnesses," Sihombing said, adding that the closed trial would resume on July 19.

Heller was arrested at his beach villa in Karangasem on March 9, 2004.

Indonesian police at the time said they had received notification from French police that Heller was also sought by Interpol for the same offences.

Campaigners have complained in the past that Indonesian police treated paedophilia offences lightly, but Bali authorities have said they are giving increasing importance to combating sex offences against minors.

A court in the same town in May sentences a former Australian diplomat to 13 years' jail for having sex with underage boys in the Karangasem district. The convict hanged himself in his cell shortly afterwards.