Ariel gets three and a half years in prison

The District Court of Bandung, West Java, today sentenced Nazril Irham a.k.a Ariel, Singer of Pop Band Peterpan, to three and a half years in jail, and  pay a Fine of Rp 250 million for distributing pornographic material on the internet.

This sentence is much lower than what the Prosecutors have requested i.e. five years based on the Pornography Law and the Criminal Law.

Ariel has been detained by the Police in Jakarta since he surrendered on 22 June 2010 over two video that allegedly show him having sex with TV presenters Luna Maya and Cut Tary. His prison sentence shall be reduced by the time he has spent in detention.

The sentence was protested by around 1,000 members of fanatic Islam group who demanded that Ariel should be sentenced to five years as demanded by the Prosecutors.

I hope that the judges passed its verdict merely based on their own consideration and not because they were pressured by anyone.

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Sex Video and Character Assasination

Singer of Pop band Peterpan, Ariel, and his model/presenter lover Luna Maya have finally broken their silence over the Sex Video Scandal that has been widely exposed by the news media last week.

Ariel and Luna denied that they starred in the Sex Video. The Jakarta Globe quoted Ariel as saying that certain people has exposed the Sex Video in connection with his band's plan to release their latest album.    He therefore suspect that there must be a character assassination attempt in this case. 

This is not the first time that I heard the phrase Character Assassination, but I am not really sure about the meaning. So, I Googled the phrase and found the following explanation on Wikipedia :
 
Character assassination is an attempt to tarnish a person's reputation. It may involve exaggeration or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person. It is a form of defamation and can   be a form of ad hominem argument.
For living individuals targeted by character assassination attempts, this may result in being rejected by his community, family, or members of his or her living or work environment. Such acts are often difficult to reverse or rectify, and the process is likened to a literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can last a lifetime or, for historical figures, for many centuries after their death.
In practice, character assassination may involve doublespeak, spreading of rumors, innuendo or deliberate misinformation on topics relating to the subject's morals, integrity, and reputation. It may involve spinning information that is technically true, but that is presented in a misleading manner or is presented without the necessary context. For example, it might be said that a person refused to pay any income tax during a   specific year, without saying that no tax was actually owed due to the person having no income that year.

A person who committed Defamation using the internet can be charged with violating the Electronic Information and Transaction Law (ITE) Articles 27 and 45 with maximum punishment of six years in jail and/or maximum fine of One Billion Rupiah. Whilst Defamation in general is governed by the Penal Code (KUHP) Articles 310 and 311 with maximum punishment of nine months in jail.

Further, those who play the starring roles in a Sex Video can be charged with violating the Pornography Law.

Considering the above, it would be very interesting to know the result of Police investigation on the Sex Video case.

The Pornography Law

Last week the Constitutional Court rejected the requests filed by several non-government organizations for Judicial Review on the Pornography Law, therefore the law would be validly effective in Indonesia.

However, according to Kompas (below) the provinces of Bali and Papua have refused to obey said Law.

Considering that according to our Constitution, all laws issued by the national government together with the national parliament in Jakarta should be valid in the whole territory of Indonesia, it would be very interesting to know how will the reactions would be.

Indonesian Provinces Plan to Ignore Anti-Porn Law
Sabtu, 27 Maret 2010 | 07:57 WIB

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — Authorities in two Indonesian provinces said Friday that they will not comply with a controversial anti-pornography law they say would stifle traditional Balinese and Papuan culture. The Constitutional Court upheld the law a day earlier, rejecting appeals arguing that it defined pornography too broadly and could be used to impose conservative Muslim values on other groups and to justify attacks on art.

Legislators in Papua province — a largely tribal region where women customarily go topless — said the law  passed in 2008 has never been implemented there  because it can’t be effectively enforced. The governor of Bali, a Hindu island that draws many tourists, said he has consistently opposed the law because it goes against Balinese society.

Komarudin Watubun, deputy house speaker for the Papua provincial council, said it would be impractical to impose the law in Papua. “The people here in Papua have never bothered with the law. It’s like other laws in Indonesia where many people just realize that it cannot be enforced so why should we bother with it,” he said.

The legislation passed with strong support from conservative Islamist parties, though more than 100 legislators walked out to protest its approval. It outlaws overtly sexual images, gestures and even conversations. Violators can be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison and fined up to $795,000.

Meanwhile, Bali’s governor Made Mangku Pastika said he has long objected to the anti-pornography law since it goes against Balinese society. “We reject porn crimes, but this law also does not suit the sociological and psychological aspect of Balinese society,” he said, speaking to a group in the provincial capital of Denpasar.

Ninety percent of Indonesia’s 235 million citizens are Muslim, most practicing a moderate form of the faith. But many of its islands have large Christian and Hindu populations.

In January, four exotic dancers, along with two club managers, were arrested in the Java city of Bandung, where the mayor had announced a crackdown on behavior considered un-Islamic. The six were believed to be the first to be prosecuted under the law. Law professor Adrianus Meliala, from the University of Indonesia, said the law’s provisions are unlikely to be applied evenly across the country.

“Law enforcers are reluctant to perform legal actions which are not popular and will cause a controversy, so they will avoid charging people,” he said.

Judicial Review on the Pornography Law

Legal action in Court must be prepared very carefully if we want to win the hearts of the Judges. For which purpose, any one who wants to take such action are advised to appoint a lawyer to represented to them if they want to succeed.

However, appointment of a lawyer does not always guarantee the success of a legal action. That’s exactly what happened to the Petition for Judicial Review of the Pornography Law filed with the Constitutional Court by famous lawyer O.C Kaligis on behalf of 11 North Sulawesi individuals who claimed to be the representatives Non Government Organizations (NGO) in North Sulawesi.
According to The Jakarta Post/E.Maulia, during the first court hearing yesterday, the council of judges demanded the Petitioners to prove their status as representatives of the NGOs. Besides, they were asked to mention correctly the Articles of the said Law that they want to be reviewed; and asked them to elaborate what harm that the Law might cause to the North Sulawesi community. The judges gave the Petitioners 14 days to revise their request.
Earlier, The Jakarta Globe/C. Pasandaran reported that 11 individuals who claimed to be the representatives of several Christian, student & minority organizations in North Sulawesi have requested the Judicial Review on three Articles of the Pornography Law i.e. Art. 1. about the Definition of Pornography, Art. 4. about the Production and Distribution of Pornographic materials, Art. 10. about the ban on Public Performances deemed to be Pornography.

The above shows that anyone who wants to fight in court should be very careful in preparing their actions although they are represented by well known lawyer.