Councillor quizzed over sexual harassment

JAKARTA (JP): City Police Women's Desk questioned a city councillor on Friday, in connection with a sexual harassment complaint filed by the husband of a woman who alleged that the councillor had drugged her and molested her.

Councillor Syamsuardi Botan of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction, a former lawyer, said on Friday that the allegations laid on him by the wife of his former client, Johnny Irwansyah, were false.

"They are all lies. Every single thing that Johnny has said is a lie," Syamsuardi told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said that Johnny was convicted for the murder of an Army officer, and he spent six-and-a-half years in jail. "Just because I lost his case, he has come back to blackmail me."

Syamsuardi added that the accusation was improbable, since he was "a Haji, a pious man and a city councillor."

According to Johnny, during the time he spent in jail, Syamsuardi had taken advantage of his wife, who had often gone to Syamsuardi for legal advice, to get Johnny out of jail.

"This man had once, drugged my wife, and then took her to a motel in Puncak, where he abused her. She told me that she had filed a police complaint after the incidents occurred, but nothing was done then. So, I resubmitted the case." (ylt)