Jakarta – The Women's Legal Aid Foundation (LBH APIK) has demanded the Jakarta Police charge noted poet Sitok Srengenge with a heavier charge than that of a mere misdemeanor.

Sitok was reported to police by a University of Indonesia (UI) student for alleged rape, which made her pregnant.

LBH APIK director Ratna Batara Munti said in an official statement on Friday that Sitok needed to be held responsible for more than a misdemeanor after further investigation with the student's counselor.

"Based on the information gathered from the counselor, communication between SS [Sitok] and the student initially took place when the poet promised to help her with her thesis. Therefore, clearly there was an abuse of power between SS and the victim, which then led to dependence and vulnerability on the student's part leading to the alleged sexual exploitation," Ratna said.

"Therefore, the alleged sexual act that took place between SS and the victim was not consensual."

On previous occasions, Sitok had said that he was willing to take responsibility for the student's pregnancy. However, according to Ratna, this was not enough.

"Despite the fact that SS has stated that he is willing to take responsibility, we want to affirm that this is not the main issue. The main issue is that what happened was non-consensual sexual intercourse, which is usually described as rape. The incident has also severely affected the victim's psychological condition, causing her to attempt suicide on at least two occasions," she added.

"Therefore, we want the police to investigate this case as a rape, not merely as a misdemeanor," she concluded. (hdt)