Ex-editor of Playboy Indonesia turns up to serve jail term

JAKARTA - The former editor of Playboy Indonesia magazine turned himself in Saturday to serve a two-year jail term for indecent publication, state media reported.

Prosecutors Friday began searching for the magazine’s former chief editor, Erwin Arnada, after he failed to turn up to serve the sentence handed by the Supreme Court in August.

“I will serve the sentence with grace,” Arnada was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying at the South Jakarta prosecutor’s office.

Several issues of Playboy Indonesia hit the newsstands in 2006 but the magazine ceased publication after a public outcry, even though it carried no nudity.

Arnada was arrested and charged following complaints against him by conservative Muslim groups, but a court dismissed indecency charges against him three years ago.

The Supreme Court overturned that ruling in August, sentencing Arnada to two years in prison for publishing pictures of scantily-clad women.

Arnada’s lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said he would submit a petition for a case review with the Supreme Court next week.

“He should have been subjected to the press law,” he said.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, passed a pornography law in 2008 and recently launched a campaign to block pornographic content on the internet.

Liberal Indonesians have criticised Arnada’s prosecution as an attack on freedom of expression.