Yogyakarta City Government Legal Team Monitors Child Abuse Daycare Case Through to Final Verdict

Yogyakarta (ANTARA) - The Yogyakarta City Government (Pemkot) Legal Team is committed to monitoring the legal process until it reaches a final verdict in the child abuse case at Little Alesha Daycare in Sorosutan Village, Umbulharjo, where police have now designated 13 suspects. Chairman of the Yogyakarta City Child Protection Legal Team, Dedi Sukmadi, stated in Yogyakarta on Wednesday that the team is currently observing how investigators from the Yogyakarta Police Resort are developing and examining the 13 suspects in the daycare abuse case. “We cannot comment on whether (the number of suspects) will increase or not, as it concerns the evidentiary elements from the investigators themselves. However, we are now beginning to analyse whether there are more than 13 suspects. Our principle remains to monitor the legal process until it is finalised,” he said. “And we will also provide some recommendations to the government on how to handle future daycares and so on in a better way,” he added. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Yogyakarta City Legal Aid and Human Rights Working Team, Saverius Vanny, stated that several aspects are being given attention in handling the legal case of child abuse and neglect at the childcare facility, one of which is corporate criminal liability. However, he said, criminal restitution or additional penalties in the form of compensation that must be paid by the perpetrators—in this case, the daycare foundation—to the victims would also bind the assets of that child care foundation. “That is the effort we will try to make. So we will see to what extent the law allows for those steps (asset freezing),” he said. Regarding the daycare case, there have been 182 people who have reported alleged abuse to the Yogyakarta City Integrated Child Protection Unit (UPT PPA), and approximately 50 complaints have been assessed and will proceed to legal processes, with special powers of attorney to be prepared accordingly.