3 hours ago

Quinawaty Pasaribu, BBC News Indonesia and

Gavin Butler

Facebook/IlovePati

Kiai Ashari, 58, has faced a string of allegations over the years

Hundreds of people descended on a girls' boarding school in the Indonesian village of Tlogosari, Central Java on 2 May, shouting chants and waving banners.

"Women are not sexual objects" read one. Another said, simply, "The Predator".

The mob was there to accost and hurl insults at 58-year-old Kiai Ashari, the caretaker of the Ndholo Kusumo Islamic boarding school, as he was escorted away by police. He is suspected of sexually abusing dozens of female students – most of them orphans from poor families – over the course of several years.

The case has provoked outrage in Indonesia, and highlights a systemic issue of sexual abuse in Islamic boarding schools across the country.

While multiple witnesses who spoke out against Ashari have since withdrawn their testimonies, one victim has now filed an official complaint – and suggested that as many as 50…