One year later

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February 25th marks one year since Neil Bantleman was thrown back into an Indonesian prison. The teacher’s acquittal on what the family calls spurious child abuse charges was thrown out by the country’s Supreme Court.

Neil Bantleman was a teacher at a prestigious Indonesian school when, in 2014, he and several others who worked at the school were accused of assaulting young boys.

“His office has literally four glass walls. The allegation is the principal took the boy from class, drugged him, assaulted him with Neil in the office, all within 30 minutes. That’s preposterous in its self, but the mother of the child spend 90% of her time at the school, volunteering.” Guy Bantleman, brother.

The abuse allegedly went on for more than a year and involved several adult men, but the six year old had no injuries and his mother is suing for $125 million. Bantleman was convicted and then acquitted. He was freed for six months, but his passport not returned. Then Indonesia’s Supreme Court overturned the acquittal and he was thrown back in jail. It’s now been a year and there is no release date in sight.

Guy got 10 minutes with the Prime Minister last year and speaks with Global Affairs twice a month. Just this week his brother was mentioned during question period and now he’s using his experience to help other families with loved ones imprisoned abroad.

Thursday, 35-year-old Sahab Jamshidi pleaded guilty in the drowning of a St. Lucia boy so that he could pay a $36 000 fine and end his two-year ordeal. He had been kite-surfing when he noticed and tried to help the struggling 4-year-old but ended up blamed for the death. Last fall a Stoney Creek woman was jailed in Abu Dhabi, where she was returning to teach, traces of marijuana were found in her bag.

For the last few months Guy and the lawyers have been working on an appeal to the Supreme Court. It will include, for example, professionals testifying that their evidence was misinterpreted by the court.