Padang Police Hopes That Student Victims Of Sexual Harassment In Unand Reports

Padang City Police Chief Kombes Pol Ferry Harahap. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

The Padang City Police, West Sumatra (West Sumatra) expects female students who feel they are victims of alleged harassment by lecturers at Andalas University (Unand) to make a police report so that the matter is processed criminally.

"We expect the victim to make a police report so that law enforcement can be carried out, because the act of harassment is a complaint offense," said Padang City Police Chief Kombes Pol Ferry Harahap at a press conference in Padang, quoted from Antara, Saturday, December 31.

He said that because the act was a complaint offense, the police needed a report from the victim in order to be able to process it legally.

He explained that since the case emerged to the public, his party has continued to monitor its development until now, where an internal process has been carried out by the campus.

The campus has formed the Unand Sexual Violence Prevention and Handling Task Force (PPKS), even lecturers have been disabled from campus.

However, Ferry continued, the internal process must also be accompanied by law enforcement in order to obtain legal certainty.

"The purpose of the law is justice, benefit, and legal certainty. With the hope that this incident will not happen again," he explained.

Do not let, he said, justify that every such event can be completed with only an internal process.

"We don't want later there will be lecturers who make matters like this easy, so they think that they can be resolved internally," he explained.

Whereas in that case, law enforcement steps should be taken because the rights of victims must be protected.

On the other hand, the press conference was held by the Padang Police Chief to explain the performance throughout 2022. He was accompanied by a number of other main officials such as the Head of the Criminal Investigation Unit, Kompol Dedy Adriansyah Putra, the Head of the Drug Investigation Unit, Kompol Al Indra, and others.

The press conference also revealed that the brawl was a prominent event and continued to be anticipated in 2022 in the local city.

From January to December 31, 2022, there were 32 cases of brawls, 29 of which were processed criminally. The perpetrators were charged with articles of persecution, beatings, and the Emergency Law on Sharp Weapons.

"For 2023 we are committed to taking action against every crime and actions that disrupt public security and order in Padang," he explained.