Farouk Arnaz & Bayu Marhaenjati, Jakarta – Under increasing pressure to justify charging two Jakarta International School teachers with child sexual abuse, police on Wednesday accused the teachers of using drugs to sedate two six-year-old children before raping them.
"The disobedient students were summoned to the guidance counseling [room]. In there, the victims were given drugs called a magic stone," Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Dwi Priyatno said.
Dwi said "magic stone" in English and did not elaborate on what kind of drug the police suspected it to be. He did not comment on where police had heard the term magic stone. "This is a kind of anesthetic drug which made them numb," he said. "We're still investigating this."
Sr. Comr. Dwiyanto of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) told news portal Tempo.co that he had never heard of the drug, as did Police Hospital medical field service head Sr. Comr. Ibnu Hadjar.
The teachers, Canadian national Neil Bantleman and Indonesian national Ferdinand Tjong, have consistently denied any wrongdoing, and the school has defended them throughout.
The accusation came in the wake of a high-profile investigation into sexual abuse allegations centering on a group of six contracted cleaning staffers, who were accused of raping a 6-year-old kindergartener in a school bathroom. One of the suspects died in custody in an apparent suicide after drinking cleaning fluid.
Dwi said police were still building the case and looking for additional alleged victims. After their arrest, the two accused teachers went though lab tests at Kramat Jati police hospital.
"We expect the results of laboratory and physical results to come out in around a week," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Wednesday. He also said the suspects would be subject to a polygraph tests – which are admissible in Indonesian courts, but not as standalone evidence.
Celebrity defense lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea accused the police of trying to intimidate the suspects.
"After we left in a car, suddenly they were ask to sign a letter [consenting to detention], otherwise they would be shackled and jailed. They [signed] it without the presence of lawyers, obviously violating [regulations]," he said. He said the allegations were entirely fabricated.
The Australian, United Kingdom and United States embassies in Jakarta expressed concern over the arrests. "As the three founding embassies of the Jakarta International School, we are deeply concerned about the detention of several JIS teachers last night," the embassies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The Canadian embassy on Wednesday evening told the Jakarta Globe that it was involved in the legal proceedings.
"Canadian consular officials are providing assistance to a Canadian citizen who has been detained in Indonesia," embassy spokesman Ian Trites said in an email. "Consular officials are engaged with local authorities to gather additional information. To protect the private and personal information of the individual concerned, further details on this case cannot be released."
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/police-accuse-jis-teachers-drugging-students-magic-stone/