Francois Camille Abello, a French national, arrested for allegedly molesting more than 300 Indonesian children, died after attempting suicide. The pedophile was arrested from a hotel room in western Jakarta last month. According to law enforcement officials, under the child protection laws in Indonesia, if found guilty of the charges levied against him, Abello would have faced the death sentence.
Pedophile Recorded Sexual Acts With Minors
Following a tip-off, Abello was arrested from a hotel room where he was found semi-naked with two minor girls last month. The informer, a local resident, had sounded the alarm after he suspected the foreign national of exploiting the children, reported The Los Angeles Times.
Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus said that Abello was found lying unconscious in his cell with a wire wrapped around his neck. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where the doctors were able to revive him. "His condition was stable a day later, but then deteriorated (because) of brain damage due to lack of oxygen after (the) suicide attempt," Yunus said.
The police had paraded the handcuffed French pedophile during a press conference on Thursday. Abello had recordings of sexual acts committed with 305 children aged between 10 and 17 years and stored them on his computer. During the conference, Jakarta Police Chief Nana Sudjana said that Abello had not cooperated with investigators and refused to provide passwords for programs on his computer.
Abello Lured Minors with Money
Sudjana was quoted stating that Abello's victim were street children who were lured with money. "Abello approached the victims and offered them (to) work as models. He paid them between $17 and $70 for engaging in sex acts and beat those who refused," Sudjana said.
In a statement issued earlier, Indonesia's Social Affairs Minister Juliari Batubara had called for the suspect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. "We need to take more serious action to prevent such things from happening again," he said.
ABC News said that reports have revealed that foreign nationals are increasingly targeting children in Indonesia. Earlier in June, the Indonesian police had arrested an American escapee, Russ Albert Medlin, for alleged sexual abuse of children.
A serial pedophile, Medlin had been charged with sexual violence against a minor twice by a district court in Nevada between 2006 and 2008 and served two years in prison prior to his arrest in Jakarta, Yunus was quoted by the outlet.
