Jakarta Globe/AP, Jakarta – The South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office say they have launched a nationwide manhunt for the former editor of Indonesia's short-lived edition of Playboy magazine after he failed to turn himself in on Friday.

"We have coordinated with other prosecutor's offices to arrest Erwin Arnada," Muhammad Yusuf, head of South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, told state news agency Antara on Friday.

He said prosecutors would deploy search teams in Bali, West Jakarta, Tangerang and Parung in Bogor, West Java.

Yusuf said Erwin had previously broken promises that he would hand himself in on Sept. 5 and Oct. 7.

The South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office said Erwin Arnada would show up to start serving his two-year jail term – imposed by the Supreme Court – for his indecency conviction. The magazine contained no nudity and is considered much tamer than other magazines available in shops.

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.

Arnada faced loud protests from the time the toned-down version of the American magazine hit news stands in 2006. Within weeks, members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front stormed the magazine's offices in south Jakarta.

They also started legal proceedings against him, but judges at the South Jakarta District Court acquitted the editor in 2007, saying pictures that appeared in the magazine could not be categorised as obscene.

The hard-liners appealed to the Supreme Court, which issued its decision during a closed-door session in August, said Yusuf, the chief of Jakarta's prosecutor's office who goes by one name.