Talk about consequences: sinetron (Indonesian soap opera) actor Galih Ginanjar has been criminally charged with slander for humiliating his ex-wife, actress Fairuz A Rafiq, when he appeared as a guest on a Youtube video hosted by TV presenter Rey Utami.
During the half-hour long video, which has since been taken down, Rey quizzed Galih on details about his personal life, including his marriage to actress Fairuz A Rafiq, which ended in 2015. At one point in the video, Galih described in vulgar detail about how Fairuz was in bed, going as far as saying that her genitalia smelled like “salted fish” and that their sexual intercourse “usually lasted 15 minutes”, to which Rey couldn’t contain her laughter.
After undergoing several police inquiries — the latest of which saw them being questioned from yesterday evening until dawn today — Galih, Rey, and her husband Pablo Benua, who runs the Youtube channel with her, were charged with slander under the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE), which criminalizes the dissemination of defamatory content online.
If convicted, they each could face up to four years in prison.
Rey and Pablo’s attorney, celebrity lawyer Farhat Abbas, confirmed that his clients and Galih were named suspects at 4am today.
The police say arrest warrants were issued for Rey and Pablo, and they may be taken into custody following another day of questioning.
“Investigators considered them (Rey and Pablo) to be uncooperative because there were many questions left unanswered,” Iwan told Detik.
Police detention is not mandatory for criminal charges carrying a potential sentence of less than five years, but the police have the prerogative to put someone in custody under certain circumstances.
Meanwhile, Galih is also facing another day of questioning, but no arrest warrant against him has been issued. Nevertheless, police say they have enough evidence to incriminate all three suspects.
On July 1, Fairuz filed a report against Galih and Rey for spreading immoral content about her with her husband and attorney, celebrity lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea.
Fairuz’s older sister, Ranny Fadh Arafiq, read her statement to reporters on her behalf.
“Those immoral words have badly hurt Fairuz’s heart as well as all Indonesian women, and they have brought great shame to my husband and my family,” she said.
“What made it hurt even more was that the [Youtube] account owners, Rey Utami and Benua, were laughing while spreading the immoral content, by encouraging everyone to subscribe and publish it as many times as possible to increase their subscriber count.”
Galih’s wife, fellow celebrity Barbie Kumalasari, has also undergone police inspection but she was not charged and was allowed to go home.
