"Canadian schoolteacher Neil Bantleman has turned himself in to
Indonesian custody, after the country’s supreme court overturned his
acquittal on charges that he and an Indonesian teacher allegedly abused
three children. Neil Bantleman and Ferdinant Tjiong had been sentenced to 10 years
in prison last April. Both appealed to the country's High Court which
acquitted them in August. The pair had their acquittal overturned on Wednesday. Chandra Saptaji, head of the general crime section at the South
Jakarta Prosecutors' Office, said Bantleman, who was in Bali,
surrendered after communicating with authorities through the Canadian
Embassy. "I can say that he was co-operative," Saptaji told The Associated
Press. "He took the initiative by flying back to Jakarta escorted by
officials from the embassy and the prosecutors' office. Bantleman was admitted to Cipinang Prison, the same prison in Jakarta where Tjiong was taken into custody on Thursday. The reversal has stunned Bantleman's family members."......... Both Bantleman and Tijong worked at the Jakarta International School, which is now called the Jakarta Intercultural School. The 2,400 students in the school include children of foreign
diplomats and expatriates from about 60 countries along with Indonesia's
elite. The school's principal and a number of other teachers have said they believe Bantleman is innocent. Last December, five janitors at the school who were arrested in the
same case were sentenced to up to eight years in jail. Police said a
sixth suspect in that group died of suicide."
