‘Two Islamic junior high students say their principal kissed and fondled them. (JG Photo/Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)

Malang. The principal of an Islamic junior high school in Malang District, East Java, was arrested by local police for allegedly sexually molesting two of his students, both 14 years old.

The principal, identified only by his initials “A.R.,” has been charged with sexually assaulting minors and is now under police custody.

He faces five years in jail if convicted.

“It happened on Jan. 31,” said First Insp. Sutiyo, chief of the Malang Police’s women and children protection unit on Monday. “Two parents filed a report and we have examined seven witnesses.”

According to witnesses, the assault occurred at a field in Kenanga Village, where students of the Islamic school were out on a scout camping trip.

During a bonfire event at around 11 p.m. that day, the victims L.S. and R.R. fell ill and some teachers brought the two teens to the only dry and comfortable place available, the principal’s car.

The principal said that he would stay in the car and watch over the pair. But instead he allegedly molested the girls after the others left.

Both victims reported their ordeals to their parents, saying that the principal had kissed and touched their breasts.

Police had also examined the victims with the help of a psychologist.

“According to the expert, both victims suffered from [psychological] trauma from the assault although they showed different symptoms,” the officer said.

L.S., Sutiyo continued, has trouble eating while R.R. is still shocked by the ordeal. Both refused to go back to school.

The principal has denied the charges claiming that the two girls were “possessed” and that he was merely trying to help them.

“At the time, I was simply blowing air into their eyes and whispering [Koranic] verses into their ears while checking their pulse,” A.R. said at the police headquarters where he is currently detained.

The principal also said a number of teachers were trying to frame him and make false accusations against him.

“It seemed that there are certain teachers who are envious of me because I have been a principal for too long, ten years to be exact,” he said, adding that he will not file any complaints against the teachers.

“I will let God punish them,” he said.

The case adds a long list of teachers and principals sexually assaulting and harassing their students, including those in Islamic schools.

Last September, a cleric at an Islamic boarding school in Jember, East Java, was accused of raping at least eleven pupils between the age of 15 and 17.

The cleric, identified as Ibrahim Kholil, is now awaiting trial. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

In 2013, Nurokhim, a Koran teacher at an Islamic boarding school in Temanggung, Central Java, was arrested for harassing and assaulting at least six of his underage female students over the course of six months.

He is now serving a four-year prison sentence.

In Jakarta, a 72 year-old Koran teacher named Kosim Chotib is now serving 10 years in prison for raping and assaulting at least 32 underage students at an Islamic school he founded, between 2007 and 2011 including a 10-year-old girl.

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Source: The Jakarta Globe