Indonesia’s highest court has appealed to prosecutors and sentenced an Islamic boarding school director to death for raping at least 13 students over a five-year period and impregnating some of them.
Heri Wirawan was sentenced by a panel of three judges to the Badung District Court in February and sentenced to life in prison.  He was charged with raping girls between the ages of 11 and 14 between 2016 and 2021 in a school, hotel or apartment rental in the city of West Java.  At least nine babies were reportedly born as a result of the rapes.
His case caused a public outcry as there have been many victims for many years.  Police said the victims were too scared to tell anyone.
Judges in the Bandung Supreme Court on Monday upheld a prosecutor’s appeal against the death sentence and the seizure of Wirawan’s assets.
“What he had done had caused trauma and suffering to the victims and their parents,” the court said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.  “The accused had tarnished the reputation of Islamic boarding schools.”
The lower court ordered Indonesia’s Ministry of Child Protection to pay $ 23,200 in combined compensation claimed by the victims and between $ 600 and $ 6,000 for medical and psychological treatment for each girl, instead of confiscating Wirawan’s assets.
But the Supreme Court ruled to confiscate his assets, including one owned by an institution, and to auction them off for the benefit of the victims and their children.
The judges also ruled that nine children born to victims should be handed over to the Child and Women Protection Service for periodic evaluation “until the victims are mentally ready to care for their children and the situation allows their children to be returned to the victims.” ».
The appellate judges rejected the prosecutors’ request for chemical castration, saying that someone sentenced to death or life imprisonment may not be subject to other sentences than the revocation of certain rights.
Wirawan’s lawyer, Ira Mambo, said she would advise her client to appeal the sentence to the Supreme Court.  They have seven days to do so before the court decision becomes final.
Wirawan pleaded guilty and apologized to his victims and their families during the trial.
West Java police began investigating the case and arrested Wirawan last May, when a victim’s parents went to police after their daughter returned home for a holiday and admitted she had just given birth.
The case was not released until November, when court proceedings began.  Police said they were waiting to make it public to prevent further psychological and social harm to the victims.
In January, President Joko Widodo said he was concerned about cases of sexual harassment in Islamic boarding schools and called on parliament to speed up discussions on a bill on sexual violence.  Conservative lawmakers and Islamic groups want the bill to include bans on extramarital sex and homosexuality.
____
Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.