Bantleman, Tjiong
International school could face closure over specious rape case
Today, April 2, a court in Jakarta is due to deliver what is expected to
be an ominous verdict on the case of two personnel from the Jakarta
Intercultural School, the city’s most prestigious for expatriate children, on
suspect charges they had sodomized children repeatedly in school quarters.
The case,
against a Canadian-born administrator, Neil Bantleman, and Ferdinant Tjiong, a
teaching assistant, is almost universally regarded as specious. It has sent
shudders through the expatriate community because of the malleability of the
South Jakarta district court, considered one of the most corrupt in a corrupt
court system. There are fears that the school, which hosts 2,400 students and
270 teachers, could be closed as the result of a US$125 million lawsuit filed
by the parent of one of the children who allegedly was raped.
The
school’s main campus, opened 60 years ago as the Jakarta International School,
now stands on some of Jakarta’s most valuable real estate. Unnamed interests in
Jakarta are said to covet the 49 acres of property that the school’s three
campuses sit on in the event that it is closed as a result of the lawsuit.
Sources
in the expatriate community say they are almost certain that the two will be
given sentences ranging up to 12 years in prison. In December, four janitors
who allegedly molested children were given eight years in prison and a fifth, a
woman, was given seven years. A sixth janitor was said to have committed
suicide in police custody although many believe he was beaten to death. That is
despite the fact that parents have unequivocally backed both the teachers and
the janitors and medical authorities say the rapes never took place.
The
evidence is considered so baseless as to be fanciful and defense attorneys say
it is connected to the lawsuit. “The judges must consider a US$125 million
lawsuit filed by the mother of one of the boys as motive for dragging the
teachers into this criminal case,” according to the defense statement,
delivered in mid-March.
The
unnamed woman who brought the case alleged that her five-year-old son had
contracted herpes from the encounter. However, upon examination by medical
personnel there was no evidence that the child had herpes and the mother
refused to allow further tests.
The case
is built on police allegations that the defendants had a “magic stone” that
they could pluck out of the sky that supposedly prevented the children from
feeling pain during the assaults. The police, however, have never come up with
a drug resembling the so-called stone’s existence. The authorities also allege
that the assaults took place in a “secret room” that has never been found.
The
mother of one alleged victim charged that the rapes had taken in a room that
was used for filing cabinet storage, and in which the administration staff
gathered. However, the room was demolished during renovations that took
place before the supposed offenses ever took place. One child alleged he was
raped multiple times in an open, heavily populated block with glass walls where
such an act would be virtually impossible without being seen, and other
children said there was a secret underground dungeon at the school.
The court
has imposed a news blackout and also barred even consular officials from the
court.
The case
has drawn international criticism on charges that the confessions were beaten
out of the janitors, who later recanted their statements. US Ambassador Robert
O. Blake, in a statement issued last year on the convictions of the janitors,
called on the Indonesian government to investigate the allegations of torture.
The Canadian and Australian embassies have also issued statements critical of
the charges.
“We have
been watching this case with great interest,” Blake said. “The protection and
welfare of children is of utmost importance to educators, law enforcement, to
all of us, and all allegations of abuse must be taken seriously. However, we
note with concern that the investigative proceedings of both this case, and the
accusations against the JIS teachers, raise serious questions about the
standards of evidence applied.”
The evidence trail calls up
the tragedy of the specious McMartin preschool trial in California in the
1980s, in which six years of criminal proceedings ended with an acquittal on
the basis that the case stemmed from prosecutors coaching the allegedly
molested children. Asia Sentinel
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