LBH Makassar Appreciates Police Reopening Case Of Father Allegedly Abusing 3 Children In East Luwu

MAKASSAR - The Makassar Legal Aid Institute (LBH) appreciates the National Police for reopening the alleged molestation of three children by their biological father, after being stopped by the East Luwu Police in 2019.

"We appreciate the reopening of this case after it was stopped, even though it was too late," said Director of LBH Makassar Muhammad Haedir, in Makassar, South Sulawesi, quoted by Antara, Thursday, October 14.

According to him, this case should have been opened when a follow-up case was held in March 2020 at the South Sulawesi Police Headquarters. However, it doesn't matter, as long as this case can continue and the victims get justice, because that's the most important thing.

"The next step, we are of course open to cooperation in providing input to investigators to provide evidence of conducting an examination of the victims, both interviews and physical examinations," said Haedir.

He hopes that the special case will see the best interests of the child, because the examination of child cases is not the same as other general criminal cases.

Haedir confirmed that there was new evidence based on the results of an assessment from the Makassar Women and Children Empowerment Center for Integrated Services (P2TP2A) since the beginning of this case, which accompanied the victims.

"There is an assessment result from the P2TP2A psychologist, we will submit it, meaning asking investigators to take the results. In addition, it is clear that the findings of the National Police Headquarters team who went there found that there were differences in the results of the post-mortem and the interview with doctor Imelda," he said.

That way, the results of the examination of the doctor Imelda at the Regional General Hospital in East Luwu, although the investigators also requested and compared the results of the examination of the child victims at other hospitals, because there were differences in the results.

Regarding the process of holding a special case later, said Haedir, his party asked to be taken over by the National Police Headquarters or at the South Sulawesi Police, as long as it was directly supervised by the Headquarters and no longer at the East Luwu Police, because the level of trust had decreased.

"That is the most important thing too. We ask that the handling of the case is no longer in East Luwu, but by the headquarters or the regional police with the supervision of the headquarters. Why is that, we know how it has been handled there so far. Since this case has gone viral, it seems that the handling has no perspective child protection, and leaking child data and others," he said.

Regarding the efforts of the reported party to report back for defamation, the LBH team will always accompany the victims and the victim's mother.

The reported initials SA was reported by his ex-wife SR on suspicion of coercion or molestation and rape of his three children, initials AL, MR, and AL in 2019.

The victim's mother, with the initials SR, reported that her ex-husband SA was identified as an ASN, on suspicion of coercion or molestation and rape of her three children.

However, later after the case was filed based on the results of the post-mortem of the victims, investigators argued that there was no sign of damage to their sexual organs, so SP3 was issued on December 10, 2019.