Police offer ‘protection’ to alleged sex video stars
Arghea Desafti Hapsari and Dina Indrasafitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 06/24/2010 9:08 AM | Headlines
The National Police has offered “protection” to celebrities Luna Maya and Cut Tari following demands from a hard-line Islamic group to arrest the pair.
General crimes chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said Wednesday he sought to “protect” the celebrities, who were both allegedly involved in homemade sex videos that have spread on the Internet since early June, “from the outrage of public organization”.
The hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) has previously threatened to take measures into their own hands and seize both Luna and Cut Tari and the male partner in the sex tapes, purportedly singer Nazril “Ariel” Ilham.
Ariel has been in police custody since late Tuesday.
The police said Ariel had violated Article 4 in the 2008 Porn Law, which stipulates criminal penalties of up to 12 years imprisonment and Rp 6 billion in fines for those who produce, make, reproduce and distribute pornographic material.
Ariel is also charged with violating Article 27 of the 2008 Law on Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE), which bans distribution or transmission of electronic information or document that violates decency norms.
A legal expert from the University of Indonesia, Rudy Satrio, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the police had little chance of charging Ariel as the maker of the sex videos.
“The Porn Law’s explanation clearly states that those who make porn for their own consumption are exempt from the Law,” he said.
It is still unclear whether the police would charge Ariel as the maker or the distributor of the sex videos.
“But the fact the police are charging him with these articles in the Porn Law and the ITE law, I can only assume that they already have evidence on hand that Ariel had actually distributed the videos,” Rudy said.
The police also said Ariel had breached articles of the Criminal Code. Article 282 in the Criminal Code provides criminal penalties for those who distribute materials that violate decency norms. It also prohibits people from producing such materials with the intention of distributing them.
“Now, can the police prove that Ariel had intended to distribute the sex tapes?” Rudy said.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang has previously said Ariel, Luna and Cut Tari could be charged with other articles in the Criminal Code pertaining to adultery.
Extramarital sex is subject to criminal penalties as stipulated in Article 284 in the Criminal Code. The article, however, requires the spouse of the alleged perpetrator to report the case to the police. “The law clearly says that only a spouse who has been cheated on can report the case to the police. Otherwise, there’s no case,” Rudy told the Post.
Cut Tari was married at the time the video allegedly featuring her was made, which experts believe to be in 2006. So far, her husband has shown no sign of planning to report his wife for adultery.
The police on Wednesday said they had confirmed that the video allegedly showing Luna Maya and Ariel was made in 2009 or 2010, and not around 2006 or 2007 as analysts had previously said.
National Police head of public information, Sr. Comr. Marwoto Soeta said investigators found that a television was showing recent news from the recent year in the videos, which subjects Ariel to the Porn Law.
Watchdogs on Wednesday in Jakarta criticized media outlets involved in the sex tapes brouhaha.
Veven Wardhana, a media monitor, said the game of who’s doing the “protecting” is a common practice of “selling the service.”
“But arresting them is definitely inappropriate, the one who distributed the video should in fact be arrested,” Veven said. A researcher from Indonesia Media Watch, Hendra Kaprisma, suspected the police’s offer of “protection” was a pretext to detain both.
Sumber: The Jakarta Post, 24/6/2010
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