Musician Jerinx – best known as the drummer of the Bali-based punk rock band Superman Is Dead – was granted conditional release from prison today, after he had spent one year behind bars for making physical threats against a social media influencer named Adam Deni.
Jerinx’ attorney, Wayan Gendo Suardana, confirmed his client’s conditional leave from the Kerobokan Correctional Institution in Badung. The musician’s wife, Nora Alexandra, was present at the facility to greet him.
“We haven’t gotten the chance for a honeymoon, so I guess we must have a honeymoon now,” she said, adding that she and Jerinx will now try for a baby.
According to Kerobokan Prison Warden Fikri Jaya Soebing, Jerinx was able to leave the facility after his request for conditional leave was granted. Suardana said separately that the conditional leave request was submitted last month by Jerinx’ family.
Under Indonesian law, conditional leave may be granted to prisoners whose sentences are shorter than one year and six months, and who have served two-thirds of their time sentence. They must also be deemed to have good behavior within the last six months in order to qualify.
After three months in police custody, Jerinx was sentenced to one year imprisonment with a fine of IDR25 million (US$1,680) in March 2022 after he was found guilty of threatening Adam with assault.
The controversy unfolded on Instagram last year when Adam said that he had asked Jerinx to present a list of celebrities who, according to Jerinx’s conspiracy theory on a social media post, were “endorsed” to promote fear during the pandemic by claiming that they had tested positive for COVID-19. Adam claimed that Jerinx responded by calling him expletive names, which later escalated to assault threats.
Jerinx was originally set to serve time at the Salemba prison in Jakarta, but was transferred to Kerobokan as of April last year so that his elderly mother could regularly visit her son.
Jerinx is no stranger to controversy, having previously served time for calling Indonesia’s association of doctors “flunkeys” to the World Health Organization for mandating COVID-19 testing for pregnant women. He argued that the tests were harmful towards women and their babies.
In a separate case, Adam Deni himself was sentenced to four years in prison last month for violating the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE) following a defamation complaint filed by legislator Ahmad Sahroni.
