Teacher arrested for sodomy

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon, West Java

A teacher who allegedly molested or sodomized eight of his elementary school pupils in Cirebon during the past three months had been arrested, police said on Wednesday.

Cirebon Police said they delayed the arrest of Irfan bin Emon, 39, a social studies teacher at an elementary school, because he was a member of a polling station committee and busy with vote counting, chief Adj. Comr. Taufik Asrori said.

"We received reports of his behavior on Monday but we arrested him on Tuesday as we didn't want to disrupt the ballot counting process," Taufik said.

Taufik said the arrest came after a parent of one of the children contacted police on Monday at 5:30 p.m. The parent alleged his son, a fifth grade student, was molested in mid- February.

"In the report, it was alleged the suspect rubbed his penis against the victim's," Taufik said.

Detectives were then called in to arrest Irfan. When they arrived at Jl. Siliwangi near where his house was located they canceled their plan as he was busy counting votes at a polling station nearby.

"We eventually arrested him without any resistance on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. local time at his house," Taufik said.

The suspect told police he had committed the offenses on the pretext of teaching sex education to his pupils. He was tempted after teaching his pupils about human reproduction, Taufik said.

"After reading about human reproductive organs and sex education, I was enticed to try it out myself," said Irfan, who is to be married in July.

He committed his first offense in late December inside a classroom after school hours, he said.

Irfan admitted to committing sexual acts on eight of his male pupils aged 11 and 12, Taufik said.

"He has also admitted threatening them with low grades if they refused his advances. Pupils were also told not to report the incidents to anyone," he said.

The offenses were committed in different places, including the classroom, teacher's room and in the school laboratory.

If found guilty for molestation he could face a three-year prison sentence and/or a fine of up to Rp 60 million (US$7,000), Taufik said.