An Indonesian teacher was sentenced to death for raping 13 students at an impregnating at least eight of the victims
Herry Wirawan, 36, was sentenced to life in jail in February in a case that drew national attention to sexual abuse
Prosecutors, however, who had sought the death penalty and chemical castration, filed an appeal.
“We accept the prosecutors’ appeal,” said the judge’s statement, which was posted on the website of the High Court in Bandung, West Java province, on Monday.
“We thus condemn the defendant to death.”
A representative for Wirawan told AFP that he was not in court for the appeal.
For numerous years, Indonesia has avoided carrying out executions, with the most recent known executions taking place in 2016.
Wirawan’s record of abuse at the school, which is located in Bandung, was revealed last year when the family of a female student denounced him to authorities for raping and impregnating their teenage daughter.
During his earlier trial, it was found that Wirawan had assaulted the female students, many of whom were from low-income families and were attending the school on scholarships, during a five-year period. He also had at least eight of them pregnant.
The defendant requested mercy from the judge at the lower court, stating that he wanted to be there to raise his children.
According to a family of one of the victims, Monday’s punishment provided justice for the victims.
“We intended to punish him with life in jail and chemical castration so he would experience the anguish of his crime,” said Hidmat Dijaya, the uncle of one of the victims.
“However, we continue to believe that the death penalty reflects justice.”
The case sparked public indignation and raised pressure on parliament to pass a long-delayed Bill on the “elimination of sexual violence,” which aims to prevent sex crimes and offer justice to victims, including marital rape victims.
The Bandung rape case has also shed attention on the problem of sexual abuse in Indonesian education, with 14 of the 18 incidents submitted to the Child Protection Commission last year occurring in Islamic boarding schools.
There are about 25,000 Islamic boarding schools in the nation, with almost 5 million students living and studying in their dorms.
