IN JAKARTA
THE Indonesian courts on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old serial killer to death and it’s likely that a bunch of schoolgirls are currently weeping their hearts out – for the wrong reason.
They are not mourning the brutal murders of 11 people by Verry Idam Henyansyah, better known as Ryan, but rather, his impending death.
A former aerobics instructor and Koran studies teacher was arrested last May, after he cut up 10 people and buried them in his parents backyard in East Java. They included a 3-year-old girl. His 11th and final victim was skewered with a crowbar, chopped into seven pieces and then dumped in a field.
In jail, the effeminate and smooth-skinned man penned an autobiography and cut a pop album.
The book and subsequent publicity about Ryan's unfortunately-sad childhood, as well as his soulful tunes, have ironically humanised him.
In recent months, schoolchildren have sat in on his trial while teenage girls have come to his holding cell to talk to him. Police and other law enforcement officials have hardly batted an eyelid.
Ryan has a fan base too and receives between 5 and 10 letters of support each day. These fans have probably thumbed through his book Confessions: The Untold Story of Ryan.
In it, Ryan writes about a traumatic childhood. His parents were tight-fisted with affection, he grappled with homosexuality and was unable to confide in anyone and he had an early exposure to sex.
His mother had many affairs and forced her 14-year-old daughter (Ryan’s stepsister) to marry an older policeman so she could have sex with her son-in-law. His father also had an affair – with his wife's older sister.
He also talked about his efforts to be a good Muslim and direct his attention to women instead of men. But when he devoted himself to studying Islam, he ended up dating his Koran Studies teacher for nine years.
The murders, he said, took place in rage and only because he was disgusted at how the victims seduced him into having sex with them.
He alleged that four victims had come to his house and asked for sex, adding that he was not conscious of killing them, only that he was surrounded by blood and gore after.
The prosecutors however, said he had committed sadistic and merciless crimes.
When his book was published in February, Ryan said he did not want people to "know only my bad side."
The schoolchildren have only been able to see him as a kind man however.
Speaking to the Jakarta Globe, a 16-year-old who went to his cell said: "Initially, we were scared of him. But after a while, not anymore. And it's not like he would strangle us in front of so many people."
Another one added she had come just to see what a person like him would look like. Her first impression: "He's actually handsome. Too bad he’s a killer."
It remains to be seen the extent to which Ryan's soon-to-end existence will be mourned but in the meantime, his own parents are of the opinion that their son should live on.
Speaking to news site detik.com yesterday, they said that he was "certified mad" and did not deserve the death sentence.