A 15-year-old girl in Batanghari, Jambi, was sentenced to six months in prison for aborting her pregnancy after being raped by her own brother.

The Muara Bulian District Court handed down the sentence on Thursday after finding the girl guilty of committing abortion, which is illegal in Indonesia.

The girl, along with her 18-year-old brother, were charged with abortion as stipulated in Article 77 of the Child Protection Law.

The brother was also charged with sexually abusing his sister as stipulated in Article 81 of the Child Protection Law. He was sentenced to two years in prison for his crime.

"Besides imprisonment, both of them [the girl and her brother] will also be asked to undergo three months of job training at the Juvenile Rehabilitation Institute [LPKA] in Muara Bulian," Muara Bulian District Court spokesman Listyo Arif Budiman said on Friday.

Thursday’s verdict hearing was closed to the public.

The defendants and their lawyers stated that they accepted the verdict from the panel of judges. Meanwhile, the prosecution stated that they would still discuss whether or not to appeal for a harsher sentence, as originally they had demanded the girl and her brother be sentenced to one year and seven years in prison, respectively.

"We have seven days before announcing our decision," prosecutor Vanda said.

The case came to light in early June when local residents found the body of a male newborn on an oil palm plantation in Pulau village, Muara Tembesi district. Based on the results of the investigation, the police found that the 15-year-old girl was the mother of the deceased baby.

The brother admitted that he had forced his own sister to have sex with him eight times since September last year. He threatened to harm her physically if she refused.

Meanwhile, the mother of the two, who was tried in a separate hearing, claimed that she did not know about the sexual abuse and had helped her daughter to abort the pregnancy out of shame. (ist/ahw)