TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Coordinating Minister of Politics, Law, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD on Wednesday held a meeting discussing the alleged sexual assault that was committed by a number of employees within the ecosystem of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Its main focus was to encourage the case to be reopened from the victim’s perspective.

“Based on the coordination meeting we will continue to pursue the case to be reopened in accordance with the victim’s report,” said Mahfud MD in a press video statement issued on Wednesday,

In the meeting, he said, the Coordinating Ministry respects the initial court verdict from the Bogor City District Court that accepted the request from the Bogor Police that issued an SP3 (investigation termination warrant). This warrant was proposed by three out of four suspects in the sexual assault case.

Mahfud MD asserted that the meeting came to a conclusion that the investigation must be continued. The principle of "Ne Bis In Idem" is that a case with the same object, parties, and subject matter is decided by the court and has permanent legal force, and cannot be re-examined a second time. However, the Minister said the legal process of the sexual assault case does not fulfill that principle.

The Bogor District Court initially accepted the suit and granted the pretrial request submitted by three of the four suspects in the investigation. The court also issued an investigation termination warrant which police complied with on January 1, 2020,

Because of this verdict, the suspect status of the alleged perpetrators was dropped.

The alleged sexual assault against a female employee of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs by four of her colleagues occurred on December 6, 2019, which was investigated by the Bogor Police but stopped before the results of the investigation were declared complete or P21.

The investigation was dropped after the perpetrator's family members, who were also an official from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, approached the victim's parents attempting to make peace, offered the idea of marrying the victim to one of the perpetrators, and enticed the victim to withdraw her report.

The case came to light again after the suspect who was forced married with the victim, filed for divorce and eventually became viral on social platforms. This grabbed the attention of the ministry Mahfud MD leads.

The Coordinating Ministry of Politics, Law and Security Affairs then held a meeting with the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), the head of the police criminal investigation unit (Kabareskrim) commissioner Agus Andrianto, the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), prosecutors, and the Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry representatives.

This meeting led to the Bogor Police revoking the termination warrant of the case, which was later sued through pretrial by three of the four suspects of the alleged sexual assault.

ANTARA

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