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.