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An Indonesian schoolboy was cleared of serious abuse charges Monday for stinging a female classmate with a bee, a "crime" that took the country's legal system a year to resolve.
Nine-year-old David Yusuf was charged in January with inflicting serious abuse and faced almost three years in jail.
But in a rare stroke of common sense, judge Sutriadi Yahya of Surabaya district court, East Java, let the third-grader off the hook.
"This case shouldn't have been brought to court. It could have been settled amicably by the school and the parents involved because it's about normal children's naughtiness," Yahya said.
"Because of that, we're acquitting him of the charges... We leave it to the parents to guide him."
The court heard that Yusuf had taken a bee from a swarm buzzing around a coconut drink stall near his school in March last year and planted it on his classmate Dian Nirmalasari's left cheek, giving her a sting.
The girl's furious parents reported him to the police.
Yusuf's mother, grocery shop owner Any Sulistyowati, cried as the verdict was read.
"We're satisfied with the judge's decision. We will look after our child properly," she told reporters.
Indonesia's legal system is notoriously corrupt and inconsistent. A survey of foreign business executives by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in 2008 ranked Indonesia's judiciary last against 12 other Asian countries.
