Indonesian Playboy editor arrested to serve sentence

 

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October 09, 2010 (KATAKAMI) — The former editor of Indonesian Playboy, Erwin Arnada, has been arrested on the island of Bali.

Police had been looking for Mr Arnada, who ignored orders to surrender after being sentenced to two years in jail for indecency in August.

He had first been tried in 2007 and cleared of all charges.

Islamist groups forced Indonesian Playboy to close down after only a few issues in 2006.

The Islamist Defenders Front (FPI), a hardline Muslim group in Indonesia, had said Mr Arnada was a “moral terrorist”, and the group criticised the authorities for failing to track him down.

South Jakarta chief prosecutor Mohammed Yusuf said Mr Arnada had ignored three orders to turn himself in.

“We picked him up from Bali today to fly him to Jakarta”, Mr Yusuf said on Saturday.

Mr Arnada’s acquittal in 2007 was seen as a victory of freedom of the press in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation where Islamist extremists launched violent protests when the magazine appeared in 2006.

But the FPI and other Islamist groups lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court, which found him guilty of public indecency after publishing a handful of issues of Indonesian Playboy, which contained no nudity.
“We are being forced to act by the FPI as a plaintiff in this case”, Mr Yusuf said on Saturday.
The Indonesian parliament passed a controversial anti-pornography law in 2008, which was backed by Islamist groups.

But the law also prompted protests across Indonesia, particularly on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali – a favourite destination for tourists.

BBC

No travel advisory for Indonesia at this stage, says M`sian PM Najib

Najib Razak

September 02, 2010

Putrajaya (ANTARA News/Bernama) – The government does not plan to issue an advisory against travel to Indonesia at this stage, despite the latest incident in West Kalimantan on Sunday, said Najib Razak.

The prime minister said he needed to consult Wisma Putra (Foreign Ministry) before issuing a travel advisory because it was a serious matter which involved the interests of both countries.

“(Issuing) a travel advisory is a serious matter because we have so much interests…government, business and personal relations with Indonesia.

“So, we need to consider a lot of things if we were to make such a decision.
At this stage, we are not issuing a travel advisory unless the situation worsens,” he said at his office here Wednesday.

Najib was speaking to reporters after receiving a hand-made Independence Day message book from pupils of Sekolah Bukit Damansara, which was also signed by schoolchildren from three schools in Singapore.

Also present was Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Education Minister.

On Sunday, the home of a 60-year-old Malaysian engineer at an oil palm plantation in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, was pelted with stones in a “sweeping” (hunt for Malaysians) incident.

It was reported that in the 2pm incident, a group of five men wearing headbands with “Ganyang Malaysia” (Crush Malaysia) written on them, had also hurled verbal insults against Malaysia.

Asked what would it take for the government to issue a travel advisory, Najib said there was no hard and fast rule about it.

“(But) we must only issue a travel advisory when the situation warrants it…when lives are in danger or when we have information that something very serious is going to happen,” he said.

On the upcoming meeting between Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and his Indonesian counterpart Dr Marty Natalegawa in Kota Kinabalu on Sept 6 to discuss the two countries` territorial waters, Najib hoped the issues would be resolved amicably and not prolong.

“We should not invite reactions such as extreme demonstrations like what happened recently.

“It`s difficult to avoid problems between the two neighbouring countries altogether, especially when we have expansive territorial waters, the issue of which has not been fully resolved.

“Meanwhile, of course, various problems would arise from time to time.

“But we have to make a stand that whenever there is an incident, let us resolve the issue involved and there should be no interference by other parties to worsen the situation,” Najib said.