Guarded By 5 People While Locked In The Toilet, This Student Victim Of Sexual Harassment, A Sriwijaya University Lecturer, Shouts For Help

Head of Sub-Directorate for 4 Youth, Children and Women at the Criminal Investigation Unit of the South Sumatra Police, Kompol Masnoni (ANTARA)

PALEMBANG - The South Sumatra Police discovered new facts from a series of cases of alleged sexual harassment experienced by a Sriwijaya University student with the initials F. During her graduation from the Faculty of Economics, this student was locked up in a toilet.

Head of Sub-Directorate 4 Teenagers, Children, and Women at the South Sumatra Police's Criminal Investigation Unit, Kompol Masnoni, said the incident was conveyed by the victim, with the initials F, to investigators when he was examined for a report on a sexual harassment case.

"We did receive information from the victim that she was detained in the toilet during the judicial review. He conveyed the incident when stating the investigation at the Regional Police Headquarters", said Masnoni in Palembang, Antara, Monday, December 6.

The police have not been able to follow up on the incident of confinement experienced by the victim. Although according to the victim, it was suspected that the confinement was intentional to intimidate the report of a lecturer with the initials R at the university's Faculty of Economics on cases of sexual harassment.

Until now, according to Masnoni, the victim has not made an official report regarding the intimidation. Victims can report the matter to the police for immediate action.

"We are open. We will follow up on all forms of reports, especially in the context experienced by the victim (F)", he said.

Previously, it was known that F was one of three students from the Faculty of Economics, Sriwijaya University who admitted to being a victim of verbal abuse through social media by R.

F and two of his colleagues, C and D, had reported R's harassment to the Integrated Police Service Center of South Sumatra Police, last Wednesday afternoon.

Then F admitted that he was locked in a toilet while attending his graduation ceremony which took place at the Auditorium Building of the Faculty of Economics, Sriwijaya University on the Indralaya Campus, Ogan Ilir, last Friday, December 3.

The incident experienced by the victims from the Faculty of Economics, especially F, made the Sriwijaya University Alumni Family Association form an advocacy team to accompany them to get justice in the case.

The head of the advocacy team for the Sriwijaya University Alumni Family Association, MA Yan Iskandar, said they suspected the confinement was a form of intimidation from campus officials towards the victim after the person concerned decided to take legal action to resolve the sexual harassment case.

The alleged confinement incident he got from the testimony of witnesses who were directly at the scene. "In the judiciary, there was an incident of confinement of the victim", he said.

He explained, based on statements from witnesses, the victim who was allegedly being held captive kept screaming for help to be removed from the toilet.

Then, the victim's screams were heard by a witness who happened to be passing near the toilet, until finally, he saved the frightened F.

"The witness was a lecturer who happened to pass near the toilet. Hearing the victim's screams, he asked who was inside, then the victim who recognized the lecturer's voice shouted, 'Sir, please help me be held captive,' he said.

The witness suspected, he continued, that the confinement contained an intentional element because in the incident the witness saw that there were five people suspected of being on guard in front of the toilet.

"At that time the witness saw that there were five people standing guard in front of the toilet", he said.

Meanwhile, Sriwijaya University's IKA Advocacy team coordinator, Sri Lestari Kadariah, said, based on the findings, two legal facts occurred.

"Therefore, we will guard this case. The rectorate should open up so that the real facts are revealed. Then we urge the police to seriously guard this case until the trial process", she said.