Bandung – An official with the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) has urged police to take legal action against celebrities Luna Maya and Cut Tari, saying it is not fair that only singer Nazriel "Ariel" Irham was jailed for sex tapes allegedly involving the three of them.
Ariel, of the band Peterpan, was released from Kebonwaru Penitentiary in Bandung on Monday after serving two-thirds of his three-and-a-half-year prison sentence. He was convicted for distributing pornographic materials under the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions Law.
Ariel was arrested in June 2010 after videos of his sexual liaisons with two women, allegedly Luna and Tari, began circulating on the Internet. Ariel insisted the videos were leaked without his knowledge by a former Peterpan employee, Reza Rizaldy.
Reza gave the videos to his cousin, who uploaded them to the Internet. Reza was sentenced to two years in prison, while the cousin was not charged.
"Why has no legal action been taken against Luna Maya and Cut Tari, as was in the case with Ariel? That is necessary to ensure justice and make them learn their lesson," Salim Usman, the head of the edict commission with the West Java chapter of the MUI, said in Bandung on Thursday.
"Ariel had partners in the videos, who were Luna Maya and Cut Tari. It's already obvious. Why only the male being punished?" he went on, adding that it was better that police process the case late than not process it at all.
Luna has denied starring in the video, while Tari issued a formal apology for the sex tape. National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Sutarman said earlier on Thursday that cases against Luna and Tari might be dropped, citing investigators' struggle to find evidence implicating the two of them in anything more than appearing in the videos.
Salim further criticized the public's enthusiastic welcome of Ariel's release, reminding them to praise Ariel only for his musical talent, not his "immoral" acts. "I don't think he has good morals. It's okay to admire him, but it should be only because of his talent in music," Salim said. (Antara/JG)