Sodomist sentenced to four years in jail

JAKARTA (JP): A man accused of pedophilia was sentenced yesterday to four years in jail for sodomizing 10 children.

Sunarto, alias Babeh bin Salman, 61, was found guilty in a Jakarta court of sodomizing 10 street children between the ages of 11 and 16 between January 1994 and July 1996.

Presiding judge Kamar Sembiring said that Sunarto was sentenced under Article 292 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum of five years imprisonment for raping a minor of the same sex.

The judge said the prosecutor had failed to prove that the defendant was guilty of violating Article 289 on sexual assault because it was not proven that the victims were forced into the act, Sembiring said.

"In previous sessions Sunarto denied using violence. He only admitted to sodomizing the children," said the judge.

Sembiring said it was disclosed in previous sessions that Sunarto had sodomized the boys because it was cheaper than having sex with women. Before or after having sex with the boys, some of whom were orphans, Sunarto sometimes gave them money or clothes.

Sunarto is a scavenger who lived in Pondok Gede, Bekasi, 30 kilometers southeast of here. Before he divorced his wife in 1990 he lived in Pandeglang, West Java. The reason for their separation was economic. They have five children.

He once told the court that he also committed sodomy because he had no other way to satisfy his sexual cravings. Both Sunarto and the prosecutor accepted the sentence.

Meanwhile, the lawyers defending a man charged with pedophilia and the murder of six street children demanded that the judge reject the indictment of his client.

Lawyer Febri Firmansyah said the indictment did not clearly state when and where the defendant, identified as Siswanto, carried out the sodomy and murder. The prosecutor also did not mention if the defendant had committed the crime alone or with someone else.

"Siswanto has confessed but that does not mean he did it. The confession has to be supported by eyewitness testimony and material evidence," the lawyer said. (05/35)