Police Arrest 5 Students in High School Mountaineering Fatal Abuse

Jakarta. Police have arrested five students from a notable high school in Indonesia’s capital following the fatal assault of a young student on a mountaineering trip.

“We have detained these five people,” Jakarta Police spokesman, Sr. Cmr. Rikwanto said on Tuesday, adding that police believed they had sufficient evidence linking the five students to the abuse. Police had not, however, ruled out the possibility that more arrests would be made.

“There are some other people we suspect were involved in the abuse,” Rikwanto said.

Arfian Caesar Al Irhami, 16, a 10th grade student of SMA 3 Setiabudi in South Jakarta, died on June 20 while taking part in a mountaineering trip to Mount Tangkuban Parahu, West Java. The trip was organized by the school’s climbing club.

Police named five senior students as suspects after questioning five sophomores.

The students, four boys and one girl, were mentors — senior students — at the Sabhawana mountaineering club.

Arfian died at Metropolitan Medical Care in Kuningan, South Jakarta, from fatal injuries to his intestines and lungs following the eight-day outing organized by the school’s club. He was allegedly beaten by seniors during the trip.

Acting Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama called on the students to be expelled and blamed them for “cowardly mentality,” rather than acknowledge that there was a systemic problem. Out-of-control physical 

 bullying or hazing is ubiquitous on schools’ and universities’ field trips away.  

Students are frequently subjected to degrading treatment by senior students that endured the same only a couple of years earlier. Despite increased awareness that the cycle needs to be stamped out by a concerted joint effort from parents, teachers and the police — students continue to make the headlines for fatally overstepping the mark. 

By Bayu Marhaenjati on 07:25 pm Jul 01, 2014