A serial rapist who drugged and assaulted 48 victims has been earmarked for deportation after the UK entered talks with Indonesia.
Indonesia kickstarted negotiations alongside attempts to also bring home a Guantanamo Bay prisoner accused of being one of the Bali bomb plotters.
Reynhard Sinaga, 41, was found guilty in 2020 of assaulting 48 men whom he drugged after taking them back to his apartment from bars in Manchester between January 2015 to May 2017.
A Manchester court ruled that the rapist must serve at least 30 years in prison for a total of 159 offences committed during the time period.
A Manchester court ruled that the rapist must serve at least 30 years in prison
GMP
Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia's senior minister for law and human rights affairs, claimed that talks were still at an early stage.
"No matter how wrong a citizen is, the country has the obligation to defend its citizen," Mahendra said, "It's not an easy job for us."
There have reportedly been talks of organising a prisoner swap, after discussions of Sinaga’s wealthy parents.
Mahendra added there are many things that need to be negotiated with the British Government, and the mechanism for a repatriation would be decided later, either through a prisoner transfer or through an exchange with a British prisoner jailed in Indonesia.
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Indonesia's senior minister for law and human rights affairs, claimed that talks were still at an early stage.
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The rapist’s family have met with the ministry's representative to seek his repatriation.
An Indonesian Government spokesman said: “We have asked his parents if they would agree, and they cried, wanting their child to come back.”
Under British rules, Sinaga is only able to file for leniency after he has carried out his 30 year sentence.
Mahendra said that the sex criminal would be imprisoned in a maximum security prison if repatriated.
HMP Wakefield, where Sinaga is held, houses some of Britain's most dangerous criminalsHMP Wakefield“Otherwise he will cause new problems,” said the minister.
Sinaga, who came to the UK as a student in 2007, targeted young men who looked drunk or vulnerable, drugging and raping them.
He was caught after a victim woke during an assault in 2017, prompting authorities to check his mobile phone where they found thousands of hours of sex assault videos.
The rape investigation was the largest in British legal history.
Sinaga has been incarcerated at HMP Wakefield, where it was reported in late 2024 that he was attacked by prison vigilantes, narrowly avoiding serious injury.
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