Child Abuse: Canadian Teacher Files Appeal In Indonesia

A formal appeal was filed last week on Wednesday by the advocates of Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman who was convicted by an Indonesian court and is to serve a ten-year prison sentence. He faces the horrendous charge of child abuse. He has very firmly refuted the allegations which he and his family say have been engineered.

The convict’s lawyers are pressing the high court for the invalidation of the conviction and thus questioning the efficacy of the legal system in Indonesia by questioning the impartiality of the judges involved. They also allege lack of sufficient proof and are calling the probe as faulty. On this basis they are seeking the overturning of the conviction.

A 125 million US dollars’ lawsuit has been filed against the Jakarta Intercultural School or the JIS. It is being alleged that abuse allegations were fabricated to pursue this lawsuit.

Seeking help from the government, Bantleman who has been has been in custody in Jakarta since July 2014, wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper accusing the legal process of being non-transparent and saying that strict time limits were placed on witnesses. Claiming that he was innocent, the convict has accused the court of infringing upon his human rights. "I realize the government cannot interfere in the legal proceedings of another country and I do not expect the government to make strong statements against the workings of any other country's legal system. However, what I cannot understand is the unresponsiveness of the federal government with regards to my case," he penned in the letter.

An appeal for the teaching assistant Ferdinant Tjiong who was also convicted in the case, is due to be filed by the defence lawyers. The JIS has about 2,400 students aged three to 18. The convicts taught the children of foreign diplomats and Indonesia’s elite class in the school.

The writer can be contacted at ritambanati@yahoo.com