How Indonesian students turned detective for the BBC’s World of Secrets

Much of the most damning evidence in the BBC’s latest investigation wasn’t gathered by the BBC at all.

It was collected by a handful of former students from a boarding school on Lombok, Indonesia. They set up a WhatsApp group, documented everything, and secretly recorded phone calls with the headmaster they had once called Abah – father.

Their story is the subject of Catching My Teacher, the new season of World of Secrets, the BBC’s global investigations podcast. Executive editor Rebecca Henschke, the BBC’s former Asia editor and Indonesia correspondent, told Mediaweek the difference this time is timing.

“For Australian listeners, the story will resonate with the country’s own reckoning with abuse in religious schools and institutions. But what makes this story so unique and compelling, I think, is that we’re not hearing about it years after the events took place. We’re alongside these young people as the story unfolds,” she said.

How it started in the DMs

Henschke reported from Indonesia for 15 years. She was brought in by Endang Nurdin, a senior journalist with BBC Eye, who learnt of the case while investigating sexual abuse in schools more broadly.

“I was hooked when Endang played me some of the phone calls between the headmaster, Abah, and Yusron and Zia. The audio is extraordinary and chilling. You hear the manipulation happening in real time.”

Zia and Yusron had both been star pupils, in different years. After Zia moved to Cairo to study, Yusron spotted her Instagram posts and “slid into her DMs”. Over time, she confided that their former headmaster had sexually assaulted her.

“Yusron is highly analytical, and he quickly concluded that he needed to investigate. He had always been interested in detectives, so he set up a WhatsApp group and began collecting information and documenting everything,” Henschke said.

By the time the BBC arrived, the students had been threatened into silence. “But they had recorded it all!”

Verifying the treasure trove

That archive included calls with Abah and a meeting in which lawyers pressured the students to stay quiet. The BBC verified the voices, examined the metadata, and cross-checked messages and documents. It then ran its own undercover investigation and widened the inquiry to a case in East Java.

In Lombok, the team spent a long time preparing for an undercover operation carried out by Sukma. She was still at the school and said Abah had tried to rape her.

“Our primary concern was her emotional wellbeing and duty of care. We needed to make sure she felt ready, was in the right state of mind to do it and had carefully honed the questions she wanted to ask. No one in her position had done anything like this in Indonesia.”

Abah left his wife, Umi, to answer Sukma’s questions. According to Henschke, Umi acknowledged she knew Sukma and others had been abused, and that they had been forced to sign documents saying otherwise.

“The line that chills me most is when she turns the accusation around and suggests that Sukma is the one who will be damaged by speaking out, warning that it could affect her chances of marriage.”

Weeks of phone calls before a single recording

Nurdin spoke to the students by phone for weeks before meeting them in person. The team then recorded in Lombok and Egypt with informed consent and a safety plan in place, including temporary safe houses.

“We never lost sight of the fact that these were young people taking enormous personal risks by telling their stories,” Henschke said.

The fallout

Police reopened the Lombok case, and 12 more former students came forward to say they had also been abused. Police have since named the headmaster as a suspect and detained him.

The investigation also revealed that Bechi, a convicted sex offender and the son of a prominent East Java religious leader, had been secretly released from prison early. A government inquiry found errors in the decision; it revoked his parole, and he returned to prison.

Ira, one of Bechi’s alleged victims, and the Lombok students’ lawyer later addressed a special parliamentary hearing. Activists have described the reporting as a potential #MeToo moment for Indonesia.

“People from all over the world have contacted us to say they recognise their own school, or their own experiences, in the story,” Henschke said.

Then came the twist nobody scripted. “We were months into the reporting when Yusron and Zia revealed they had fallen for each other. Then they told us they were getting married!”

They were taught to obey. They learnt to resist. The second lesson, at least, didn’t come from Abah.

Listen to World of Secrets: Catching My Teacher on BBC.com, the BBC app, or wherever you get your BBC podcasts.