Scavenger tried for raping children

Scavenger tried for raping children

JAKARTA (JP): A 61-year-old scavenger was charged in the East
Jakarta District Court yesterday for raping 12 boys, all street
children aged between 11 and 16 years.

The suspect, a resident of Pondok Gede, Bekasi, committed the
alleged crimes between January 1994 and July 1996, prosecutor
Azwar told the closed hearing.

According to a copy of his dossier, which was shown to
reporters, the suspect was charged under Article 289 of the
Criminal Code, pertaining to obscene acts with force. If found
guilty, the suspect faces a maximum penalty of nine years
imprisonment.

The prosecutor also charged him with Article 292, which states
that anyone caught sexually abusing an under-aged person of the
same sex will face a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

The suspect was arrested in August during the height of a
police investigation into a serial killer who killed and
mutilated 12 street children.

Their bodies were found in the Kemayoran area of Central
Jakarta.

The suspect's arrest came after some of the boys, who were
victims of rape, reported him to the police. His interrogation
quickly led to the arrest of the murder suspect, also a
scavenger.

According to the prosecutor's dossier, the pedophile suspect
preyed on his victims in the Jatinegara subdistrict in East
Jakarta where street children live in a department store parking
lot and at the local train station.

Some of his victims were also orphans, the prosecutor said.

The dossier contained the medical reports on the children
conducted by Dr. Abdul Mun`im Idries at the Forensic Laboratory
of the School of Medicine at the University of Indonesia. The
report said the children had been sexually abused.

The 12 children, who were allegedly abused, were in court
yesterday but their testimonies will have to wait because the
trial was adjourned until next Thursday.

The children were accompanied by officials from the Jakarta
Social Institute, a non-governmental organization which gives
help and protection to street children. (16)