Sexual Violence Against Child in Sampang: Perpetrators Could Face Chemical Castration
A criminal law lecturer at Trisakti University, Azmi Syahputra, has urged the imposition of chemical castration on the perpetrators of a planned and mass sexual assault against a 15-year-old girl in Sampang Regency, East Java. He stressed that the actions of the group of 27 perpetrators have destroyed the child’s future.
“For cases of planned and mass sexual crimes against children, there is no room for compromise or tolerance whatsoever. The maximum and heaviest punishment must be handed down for the sake of justice for the victim, the psychological recovery of the family, and to demonstrate the state’s responsibility in protecting children,” Azmi told Media Indonesia on Monday (13/7/2026).
Azmi explained that Indonesia’s legal instruments are already highly adequate to deliver an extraordinary deterrent effect. Juridically, the perpetrators can be prosecuted under Article 81 paragraphs (1), (3), and (5) in conjunction with Article 76D of Law Number 17 of 2016 on Child Protection, as well as the Sexual Violence Crimes Law (Law Number 12 of 2022).
Under these provisions, the principal penalty of imprisonment can be increased by one third of the original threat because the crime was committed collectively.
“Moreover, supplementary penalties should also be applied, ranging from chemical castration and the publication of the perpetrators’ identities, to life imprisonment if the crime results in serious injury or permanent deep trauma for the victim. The law of this land already has very sharp ‘teeth’ to provide a deterrent effect,” Azmi elaborated.
In Azmi’s assessment, the quality of law enforcement in Indonesia is now being tested. The responsibility for resolving this case lies with the police, the prosecutors, and the panel of judges who will try the case in court.
Law enforcement officials are required to have moral courage and a progressive vision of child protection so that they do not hesitate to impose punishments proportionate to the suffering of victims of sexual violence against children.
“They must be brave enough to apply the maximum penalty, brave enough to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment on the perpetrators of this mass sexual violence against a child victim,” he concluded.
The Chair of the Indonesian Child Protection Agency (LPAI), Kak Seto, expressed hope that the former Ngada Police Chief AKB Fajar Widyadharma Lukman Sumaatmaja would be given the maximum penalty in the form of castration or the death penalty.
“Yesterday we conveyed that we are requesting the maximum penalty, either the death penalty or life imprisonment plus castration.”
Castration aims to drastically reduce libido and reproductive capacity, either surgically, by removing the testes, or chemically, through hormone injections.
The Acting Chair of the National Commission for Child Protection, Lia Latifah, argued for severe additional sanctions for rape perpetrators, especially those who are close to the victim.
The defendant BK, who raped his own biological child in Buol, Central Sulawesi, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, chemical castration, and the fitting of an electronic tracking device.