POLICE QUESTION ARIEL, LUNA OVER SEX VIDEO SCANDAL

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 11 (ANTARA) - Popular Peterpan vocalist Nazril Irham alias Ariel and noted presenter and artist Luna Maya finally came to the Police Headquarters on Friday for questioning amid the uproar of the circulation of sex videos on  the internet featuring an actor (looking like Ariel) having sex with two actresses, one resembling Maya and the other one Cut Tari.          Ariel and Maya arrived at 3 pm in an 'Alphard' car at the backside of the building of the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) of the National Police Headquarters.          However, journalists failed to cover Luna Maya and Ariel who were questioned as witnesses at the police headquarters that evening. Luna and Ariel left through the side door of the police office after questioning deceiving journalists who had been waiting for them since morning.          There was no information on whether the actors in the videos were them or not. Since the beginning, Luna and Ariel who arrived at the police station by car had refused to meet journalists.          The National Police's chief detective, Commissioner General Ito Sumardi, said the police had asked Luna and Ariel about the process of the filming and why the video could spread. Again Ito did not explain who shot and the object of the film.          A steamy sex video believed to involve Ariel and Luna was the first to surface, on June 4, followed a few days later by a video believed to feature Ariel and Cut Tari. There were three sex videos showing persons resembling Ariel and artist Luna Maya having sex with a duration of about two minutes and six minutes, and then with another one looking like Cut Tari with   a duration of about eight minutes.          Deputy Head of Police Headquarters' Public Relations Division, Zainuri Lubis said the persons appearing in the sex videos currently circulating among the public could  face multiple criminal charges.          "The actors in the videos  can  be charged based on  penal clauses in three different laws," Zanuri said at the National Police Headquarters on Friday. He said  the relevant penal clauses were  contained in  Law No. 11 / 2008 on Pornography carrying a penalty of  12 years in jail, Article 27 paragraph 1 of the Law on Information and Electronic Transactions requiring a penalty of up to six years in jail and a fine of Rp1 billion, and Article 282 on immorality in  the Criminal Code.          Zainuri said the actors in the sex videos could be charged based on  those articles because they were aware  their immoral acts were being recorded and because of their negligence in keeping the videos from the public.          "It is quite possible, the videos have circulated widely among the public because of their negligence," the National Police spokesman said. He said that adults should not have committed the acts because they were clearly of immoral nature.          In the meantime, senior lawyer OC Kaligis said artist Luna Maya and singer Ariel were victims in the case of pornographic video purportedly involving the two spread in the community so far.          "We refer the case fully to the police as they are just victims," he said after accompanying Luna and Ariel in the questioning over the case by the police at the National Police Headquarters.          Kaligis said he had received legal authority from Luna Maya and Ariel to accompany them in dealing with the case that had drawn wide attention from the public. The senior lawyer declined to explain if the two were indeed the ones exposed in the video nor whether the hard disc that kept the footage that belonged to Ariel had been lost.          Besides questioning Ariel, police are also investigating the person who first posted the porn video in the internet.          According to Information and Communications Ministry spokesman Gatot S. Dewa Broto, his ministry and the police have already identified the person responsible for  the sex videos' publication. The person was identified  at 3 pm on Thursday.          Gatot said from the Internet Protocol his office knew that the posting was done in Indonesia from different addresses by possibly more than one persons. "In cooperation with the police we have been able to find who has posted the video," Gatot said. His side has been working marathon in the past few days in an effort to uncover the person (s) that have posted the video that have caused public outcry.         Yet, the results of the identification process have yet to be reported to police. Thus, so far, police have not yet received a report on the identification of the persons who spread the sex videos allegedly involving the well-known artists from the Information and Communications Ministry.          Zainuri Lubis, said  the ministry  had not yet submitted the result of its identification of the persons who had disseminated the  sex videos. Investigators will take the identities of the culprits once they have received the result of the identification by the ministry.          The one-star general said that investigators would take authentic evidence on the identities of the persons who had spread the porn videos. Then, the investigators would consult technological and informatics experts. "Investigators will surely take authentic evidence and work in stages," Zainuri said.***1*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/A/S012) 11-06-2010 22:01: