JIS CLEANERS AND TEACHERS

Seven jailed for alleged child rape

In March 2014, the Indonesian mother of a six-year-old boy at Jakarta International School (JIS, later renamed Jakarta Intercultural School) claimed janitors had gangraped her son in a toilet at the exclusive school. Two other mothers later claimed their young sons might have also been sodomised by janitorial staff. Police arrested six cleaners. Four of them later said they were tortured into making false confessions. One who refused to confess, Azwar, died after undergoing seven hours of interrogation. He was buried without an autopsy. The mother behind the accusations tried to sue JIS for US$12.5 million. JIS had no liability for the cleaners, so the mother changed her story, claiming two teachers, Canadian Neil Bantleman and Indonesian Ferdinant Tjiong, had also abused her son. She demanded US$125 million in compensation. No evidence of abuse was ever produced. Instead, it was claimed Bantleman had produced a magic stone out of thin air to gain power over the boy – and abused him in a glass-walled office, witnessed by no one. In December 2014, the surviving cleaners were sentenced to between seven and eight years in jail. In April 2015, Bantleman and Tjiong each received ten years in jail. In August 2015, Jakarta High Court acquitted them due to the lack of evidence. In February 2016, the Supreme Court overturned the acquittals and extended their sentences to 11 years. As of December 2018, the mother is still trying to sue JIS at South Jakarta District Court.