A 15-year-old Indonesian girl has been jailed for six months for aborting her foetus, AFP reported on Saturday. She had got pregnant after her elder brother raped her.
Both the girl and her 17-year-old brother were sentenced by a district court in Sumatra on Thursday. The brother was sentenced to two years in jail for sexually assaulting a minor. He had raped her eight times since September 2017.
Indonesian law prohibits abortion unless a woman’s life is at risk or under certain circumstances if she is raped. An abortion must be performed by a registered professional within six weeks of pregnancy and the woman must undergo counselling. The girl had her abortion about six months into her pregnancy.
“The girl was charged under the child protection law for having an abortion,” court spokesperson Listyo Arif Budiman told AFP.
Prosecutors, who initially demanded a year’s jail term for the girl and seven years for her brother, said they may appeal the decision, reported Sky News.
The police arrested the siblings in June after a male foetus was found at a palm oil plantation near Pulau village in Jambi province. The girl’s mother, who helped her get the abortion done, faces separate charges.
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