14 Children Become Victims of Sexual Harassment of Prospective Pastors in Alor NTT, LPA Commitment to Guard Cases Until Perpetrators Are Sentenced to the Maximum

Chairman of the Child Protection Agency (LPA) of NTT Province Veronika Ata. (ANTARA/Antonita Priska Rengi)

KUPANG - The Child Protection Agency (LPA) of East Nusa Tenggara Province continues to oversee the legal process against perpetrators of cases of child sexual violence in Alor Regency.

"We continue to oversee cases of sexual violence in Alor that afflicted 14 children who were victims and hope that the perpetrators will be given the maximum punishment", said NTT Child Protection Agency Chair, Veronika Ata, when met in Kupang, Antara, Wednesday, September 21.

Veronika said NTT Child Protection Agency strongly condemns acts of sexual violence against children in the midst of the struggle of various elements in stopping cases of sexual violence in society.

Perpetrators of sexual violence, he said, must be legally processed and charged with multiple articles to get the maximum or severe punishment to create a deterrent effect and provide a sense of justice for the victim.

On the other hand, he said, children who are victims of sexual violence must protect their identities.

"For the sake of protecting the victims, children need to receive psychological services and be accompanied legally, psychologically, and spiritually so that they gain strength and recovery", he said.

Veronika said that her party supports law enforcement officials to continue to thoroughly investigate the case to reveal the possibility that other children may be victims of sexual violence.

"If there are still victims, then we support that they are immediately disclosed and reported for legal processing", he said.

The investigation process of the alleged sexual violence case continues and until now the number of victims has reached 14 children. The Alor Police stated that the suspect in the alleged sexual assault case with the initials SAS was threatened with the death penalty for his actions.

For this case, the SAS suspect was charged with Article 81 paragraph 5 in conjunction with Article 76 letter d of Law Number 17 of 2016 concerning the Second Amendment to Law Number 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection. In addition, the suspect is subject to a weighting article because there is more than one victim.