Antara & Nur Yasmin, Jakarta – The Surabaya District Court in East Java sentenced local celebrity Vanessa Angel to five months in prison on Wednesday for the online distribution of inappropriate content related to the prostitution services she was offering.
"We hereby sentence Vanesza Adzania, or Vanessa Angel, to five months in prison for evidently having distributed and transmitted electronic documents or information containing inappropriate material," said Dwi Purwadi, the presiding judge.
State prosecutors initially demanded a six-month prison sentence for the 27-year-old actress, who accepted the verdict and indicated that she would not launch an appeal.
Vanessa has been in prison since Jan. 31 and will therefore be released on Saturday, her lawyer, Milano Lubis, confirmed.
Her case relates to communication between Vanessa and her pimp Endang Suhartini, alias Siska, via WhatsApp. The actress sent pornographic photos of herself to Siska to be used to advertise her services. She sent similar photos to another pimp, identified as Tentri.
East Java Police arrested Vanessa and her pimps at a hotel in Surabaya on Jan. 5 while waiting for a client named "Rian."
She was found guilty of having violated the Law on Electronic Information and Transactions and the Criminal Code. Her pimps, who were sentenced in separate trials, have already been released on June 5.
Vanessa's legal team argued that she was not guilty because the photos had been sent in a private chat and that they were not publicly distributed. However, the judges disagreed, saying the content was still accessible.
She is the first Indonesian celebrity sentenced for providing prostitution services.