Prosecutors were searching Thursday for the former editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia after the highest court sentenced him to two years in prison for publishing pictures of scantily clothed women.
Erwin Arnada was acquitted by the South Jakarta District Court in April 2007, with judges arguing the photos could not be categorized as pornography under the country’s criminal code. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which issued a guilty verdict in 2009 but only informed the prosecutors on Wednesday. It was not clear why.
“I only learned about it myself yesterday,” said Yusuf, the chief prosecutor, adding that he was searching for the former editor so he could lead him to jail. “I don’t know the reason for the delay or why, until now, he’s still a free man.”
Indonesia, a secular nation with more Muslims than any other in the world, has a vibrant free press and a long history of tolerance, though a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.
Members of the Islamic Defenders Front — which brought the case against Arnada — stormed Playboy’s offices in south Jakarta soon after a toned-down version of the American magazine hit newsstands in 2006.
The magazine has since stopped publishing.
“Why isn’t Arnada in jail?” Munarman, one of the front’s lawyers, asked. “It’s ridiculous that we are only hearing about this now…. It’s like they wanted to hide the case from us.”
Neither Arnada nor officals from the Supreme Court answered phone calls or text messages Thursday seeking comment.
Does it not at least seem that these attacks are really aimed at the Playboy name, a signpost of encroaching Westernization, and, moreover could it be that everyone’s really angry that there’s simply not enough softcore porn to go around? 200,000 copies is, after all, barely a drop in the bucket in a country of more than 200 million…
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/09/indonesian-playboy-editor-faces-jail-refuses-to-come-out-of-hiding/