• Herry Wirawan, 36, was discovered responsible of raping 13 feminine students — all minors — and impregnating not less than eight.
• Prosecutors requested chemical castration and the demise penalty for the accused.
• The courtroom says restitution for the victims can be paid by the federal government.

An Indonesian courtroom on Tuesday sentenced a instructor to life in jail for the rape of 13 students, in a case that has drawn nationwide consideration to sexual abuse in a number of the nation’s non secular boarding colleges.

Herry Wirawan, 36, was discovered responsible of raping 13 feminine students — all minors — and impregnating not less than eight of them by Bandung district courtroom in West Java.

The revelations sparked nationwide outrage, with a senior authorities official saying President Joko Widodo has paid particular consideration to the case.

The sample of abuse got here to mild when the household of a feminine pupil reported Wirawan to the police for raping and impregnating their teenage daughter final yr.

Through the trial, it was revealed he had raped the kids — many from poor households attending the varsity on scholarships — over 5 years.

Prosecutors requested chemical castration and the demise penalty for the accused, who requested the decide for leniency to permit him to lift his kids.

Wirawan arrived in courtroom in handcuffs and stored his head down as decide Yohannes Purnomo Suryo Adi sentenced him to life in jail.

The courtroom stated restitution for the victims can be paid by the federal government.

The chairman of Indonesia’s Youngster Safety Fee stated Tuesday’s verdict meant “justice for the victims has been served”.

‘There can be extra’

However a member of the family of one of many victims advised AFP he was “very disappointed” that Wirawan didn’t obtain a harsher sentence and warned that leniency would embolden different abusers.

“This wound will never be healed as long as we live, maybe until we die. The pain we are feeling is indescribable. We don´t feel heard,” stated Hidmat Dijaya, an uncle of one of many 13 victims.

“If the sentence is lenient like this, there will be more religious teachers who will abuse children,” he added.

“We will let God as the highest judge punish him. We can only pray because those judges failed to represent our hurt and pain.”

Greater than 25,000 Islamic boarding colleges — generally known as “pesantren” — are dotted throughout Indonesia, with practically 5 million students residing and finding out within the dorms.

Instructing is commonly regimented — students attend common lessons through the day and proceed Quranic research and Islamic teachings into the night.

The Bandung rape case has shone a highlight on the issue of sexual abuse in a number of the colleges, with 14 out of the 18 circumstances reported to the Youngster Safety Fee final yr going down in pesantren.

Final yr two lecturers at a boarding faculty in South Sumatra had been arrested for sexually abusing 26 male students over the course of a yr.

And in 2020, a boarding faculty instructor in East Java was sentenced to fifteen years in jail for sexually assaulting 15 feminine students.

President Widodo final month known as on parliament to approve a invoice on the (*13*), which seeks to fight intercourse crimes and supply justice to victims, together with in circumstances of marital rape.

The invoice was drafted in 2016 however has run into delays, with non secular teams complaining it promoted promiscuity and conservative lawmakers calling for it to criminalise extramarital intercourse and LGBT relationships.