Woman jailed for abducting baby to please husband

By A'an Suryana

JAKARTA (JP): Attempting to please her husband who desperately wanted a baby from her, housewife Maemunah, 44, stole a two-day- old baby boy from a hospital.

Instead of getting her husband back, the woman is now serving time in jail. The Central Jakarta District Court on Wednesday sentenced her to one year and six months in prison.

After the judge read the sentence, Maemunah could only sit in silence as her eyes filled with tears.

According to the panel of judges -- presided over by Ali Akmal Haky -- Maemunah, a mother of four from a previous marriage, was found guilty for violating Article 328 of the Criminal Code.

Ali said the defendant abducted the baby from Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital on Oct. 13.

"Based on available evidence and testimony from witnesses, the defendant is guilty of the abduction. The state will reduce the sentence, however, since her detainment began in October of last year," Ali told the court.

The article actually carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in jail.

Prosecutor Abdul Kadir earlier demanded the district court sentence Maemunah to two years in jail.

Scores of spectators, including the defendant's three daughters, attended the trial. All three were expressionless as the judge read the verdict.

The story unfolded in April when Maemunah, who lived in Tangerang, learned that her husband, Amir, had a concubine in Bogor.

"I was tipped off by friends that he had a concubine there who was actually his ex-girlfriend," she told The Jakarta Post in the courtroom prior to the hearing.

Amir was Maemunah's third husband, who married her in 1995 after the death of her second husband, a university lecturer. She divorced her first husband in the 1970s.

According to Maemunah, Amir expected her to give him a baby.

"After four years of marriage, Amir was very glad when I told him that I was pregnant in February of last year," she said.

However, a bus accident in Kalibata caused her to suffer a miscarriage in early April.

Three weeks later Amir left her.

"I was about to get off the bus but it kept moving. I fell and injured my knee," she said.

Fearing that Amir would be upset with the news, Maemunah decided to keep quiet about the miscarriage.

Then on April 24, Maemunah decided to expose the alleged affair of her husband with the Bogor woman. By putting a pillow under her dress so she would look pregnant, Maemunah secretly followed Amir to Bogor.

"It's true. I met both of them at the woman's house," she said quietly.

The unexpected meeting among the three ended in a heated quarrel between Maemunah and Amir, who decided to leave her without giving any explanation, she recalled.

After the incident, Maemunah -- who kept up the charade of being pregnant -- regularly visited Amir, hoping that he would come back to her.

She said that she loved her husband very much and needed the presence of a father to protect her and her children.

She also stated that Amir would only go back to her if she could bear him a child.

According to the schedule, Maemunah should have given birth to their baby last October, and abducted the two-day old baby at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital sometime in that month.

Bertina Rostiana, a nurse in the maternity ward, foiled her attempt to abduct the 3.7 kilograms baby. Maemunah snatched the infant from its cradle, tossing the baby in her traveling bag. The nurse saw her do this and called police.

When judge Ali asked Maemunah whether she would file an appeal over the verdict, the woman wiped her tears and looked helplessly at her team of lawyers from the Legal Aid Post (Posbakum), requesting their advice.

Robert Manurung, one of the lawyers, then told the panel of judges: "We will consider making an appeal within a week's time."