Fahira Idris Says There Is No Place For Herry Wirawan In Society

Fahira Idris/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - DPD RI member Fahira Idris respects the sentence or life imprisonment handed down by the Bandung District Court, West Java, to Herry Wirawan, a defendant in the case of raping 13 female students.

According to Fahira, the punishment ensures there is no place for Herry Wirawan or other child predators who want to return to the community.

"Indeed, child predators should no longer be returned to the community because it will be very dangerous and cause great trauma, especially for the victim. At least, this life sentence ensures that the defendant will not return to the community," she said, based on a statement received in Jakarta, Wednesday 16 February.

Even so, Fahira Idris views that the demand for the death penalty against Herry Wirawan which was previously proposed by the public prosecutor (JPU) is actually a more appropriate demand.

She said the demand for the death penalty was in accordance with making sexual crimes against children an extraordinary crime because it had a wide impact, both for the victim, the victim's family, and the community.

The demand, continued Fahira, is in accordance with the mandate of Article 81 paragraph (1), paragraph (3), and paragraph (5) in conjunction with Article 76D of Law Number 17 of 2016 concerning Amendments to Law Number 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection in conjunction with Article 65 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.

"Although ideally, a crime like this is punishable by death, as demanded by the prosecutor, I still respect the judge's decision to sentence the defendant to life. However, I support if the prosecutor wants to file an appeal," said Fahira.

In addition, according to her, the crimes committed by Herry Wirawan were multi-layered crimes, ranging from deceiving, threatening children, and disturbing children's health, both physically and psychologically because they had to give birth at a very young age.

In fact, she continued, Herry had committed the most heinous crime because the act of sexual violence was carried out continuously and systematically. The heinous act caused widespread public unrest.

"A multi-layered crime like this deserves the death penalty, but once again we respect the judge's decision," said Fahira.

She hopes that this case can be a case that will always be remembered and become a consideration for law enforcement that sexual crimes against children are extraordinary crimes so that the punishment should be as severe as possible.