Indonesian pastor sentenced to 10 years in prison for years of sexual abuse

Illustration of sexual abus

JAKARTA — The Surabaya District Court has declared 50-year-old pastor Hanny Layantara guilty of sexual abuse and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment. Presiding judge Johanis Hehamony said Hanny was found guilty of violating Article 82 of the Child Protection Law.

“We declare the defendant Hanny Layantara guilty and sentence him to 10 years in prison and order him to pay Rp 100 million in fines or serve an additional six months in prison,” Johanis said on Monday as reported by kompas.com.

He added that the panel of judges noted two factors in their sentencing decision, namely that the defendant had refused to admit his wrongdoings and that his actions were contradictory to his role as a religious leader.

The sentence matched the punishment demanded by prosecutors. Hanny was arrested in Sidoarjo, East Java, on March 3, two weeks after his victim’s family reported the abuse to the police.

He had allegedly been planning to flee the country at the time of his arrest. The victim, now 26, said that Hanny had sexually abused her from 2005 – when she was only 12 years old – until 2011. Hanny’s lawyer, Abdurrachman Saleh, said he and his client would file an appeal against the verdict.

“We disagree with the judges’ verdict. We will appeal,” he said.