Indonesian woman held captive and sexually abused for 15 years in a cave by 'spiritual healer'

A woman in Indonesia was held captive for a staggering 15 years in a cave by a 'spiritual healer' who repeatedly raped her, police have announced.

The 28-year-old woman, identified as 'H' only, was found on Sunday in a crevice behind large rocks near the Bajugan village in Indonesia's Sulawesi province, local police said in a statement.

According to the statement, officers received a tip-off that H was being held there against her will by an 83-year-old village shaman called Jago, the Jakarta Post reported. Police arrested and interrogated Jago, and later found and rescued the woman.

Worldwide media reports claim that H's family brought her to Jago for treatment in 2003 at 13 years of age. Jago was well-known for his alternative medicines and ‘magical’ healing abilities.

After the Jago had met H, he told her family that she had left to go ‘far away’, police said. The family reported her as missing after she proved impossible to track down.

According to the police statement, Jago sexually assaulted H for 15 years pretending that it was magic or witchcraft. He would show her a photo of a man named Amrin, who he claimed was a jin, and then during sex, Amrin would appear or enter Jago's body, she was told.

'Since the perpetrator was well-respected in the village, there is a possibility that there are other victims that have not yet come forward because they are afraid,’ Magdalena Sitorus, commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, told the Jakarta Post.

‘The victim should be brought to a hospital for psychological and reproductive health examinations,’ she added. ‘Who knows what kind of changes 15 years have brought her.’

The police have charged Jago under articles of the Child Protection Law regarding sexual abuse of underage children and he faces up to 15 years in prison.

Via CNN.