Bengkulu District Court Sentenced 4.6 Years In Prison Defendant TIP Hires Victims As Prostitutes

Defendant EL while listening to the verdict read by the Chief Judge of the Bengkulu District Court. ANTARA/Anggi Mayasari

BENGKULU - The judge sentenced the defendant EL to 4 years and 6 months in prison and a fine of Rp250 million, subsidiary to two months in prison for the defendant EL in the case of the crime of trafficking in person (TPPO) in Bengkulu. "The defendant was legally and convincingly proven to have violated Article 1 paragraph (1) of Law Number 21 of 2007 concerning TPPO," said Bengkulu District Court Chief Justice (PN) Fauzi Isra when reading the verdict in the trial at Bengkulu District Court, Wednesday 29 November, was confiscated by Antara. For things that burden the defendant, namely, he had exploited the child under the age by tricking or deceiving the victim. Meanwhile, the Public Prosecutor (JPU) of the Bengkulu High Prosecutor's Office (Kejati) Zainal will think about it first for a week and will make a report to the leadership regarding the judge's decision which was lower than the demands they submitted at the previous trial. "As a prosecutor, I used a thinking time during the week and immediately made a written report on the leadership before determining an appeal or not related to the judge's decision," he said. Previously, the Public Prosecutor demanded that the defendant EL be related to the TIP case with a criminal sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of Rp250 million, subsidiary of six months in prison. "We believe that the defendant's actions of EL were proven to have exploited the victim Mawar (undername) by tricking the victim who was still underage with the lure of working as a dress shopkeeper in Lubuk Linggau City. However, Mawar was changed, instead he was taken to Pekanbar City Riau to be a commercial sex worker (PSK) in the defendant's cafe," said Zainal.

Selain itu, saat persidangan diketahui bahwa korban Mawar saat itu berusia 15 tahun dan dipekerjakan di kafe milik terdakwa EL di Pekanbaru, Riau, sebagai pemandu lagu (PL).Kemudian korban dipekerjakan sebagai PSK dengan bayaran mulai dari Rp300-500 ribu dalam setiap kali kencan, namun uang tersebut tidak diterima oleh korban tetapi diambil terdakwa EL.Diketahui, pada 13 Juli 2023, Direktorat Reserse Kriminal Umum (Ditreskrimum) Kepolisian Daerah (Polda) Bengkulu menangkap satu tersangka yaitu EL terkait kasus tindak pidana penjualan orang (TPPO) yang di bawa ke Pekanbaru Provinsi Riau.