Indonesian police said Thursday they
have arrested three suspects in connection with an online prostitution
ring that allegedly linked adult men to about 100 mostly teenage boys.
Officers
caught the first suspect, a man in his 40s accused of pimping out boys
on his Facebook page, on Tuesday in a hotel room in Cisarua on Java
island.
The man, whose identity was
not disclosed, was with seven boys and an 18-year-old when he was
arrested, said senior police officer Agung Setya.
Two
more suspects were detained on Wednesday, one who allegedly also
offered boys over social media, and another accused of using the service
which involved boys between 12 and 18 years of age.
“They all know each other, they’re a syndicate,” said Setya.
Investigators found 99 boys offered online at prices ranging from 1.2 million rupiah to 10 million rupiah ($90 to $750).
The
police began monitoring the first suspect in August, when they came
across his Facebook account during a regular online check.
He had been released from jail in March after serving a sentence for prostitution involving girls, Setya added.
Asrorun
Niam Sholeh, head of the government-backed rights group the National
Commission for Child Protection, urged the state to swiftly issue new
laws to combat sexual crimes against children.
“We
have to use this as momentum to really wage a war against sexual
crime,” he said, adding that children were being “physically and
psychologically damaged”.
resident
Joko Widodo in May introduced tough new punishments for child sex
offenders, including a maximum penalty of death and chemical castration,
after the brutal gang-rape and murder of a schoolgirl sparked
nationwide outrage.
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