Remember Galih Ginanjar, the sinetron (Indonesian soap opera) actor who said in a vlog that his ex-wife’s genitalia smelled like salted fish? After a nine-month long legal process, the case has finally come to an end with the people involved being found guilty for airing the extremely dirty and extremely private figurative laundry.
In a trial held yesterday via teleconference, presiding judge Agus Widodo read the verdict laying out different sentences against Galih and the other two defendants, presenter Rey Utami and her husband Pablo Benua. Rey and Pablo owned the Youtube channel in which Galih made his now-infamous remarks, with the former being the host.
“Hereby sentencing the defendants Pablo Benua, Rey Utami, and Galih Ginanjar for legally and convincingly committing criminal acts of defamation,” Agus said yesterday, as quoted by Kompas.
Rey was sentenced to one year and four months in prison, while Pablo got one year and eight months. Among them, Galih received the heaviest sentence with two years and four months in prison.
Previously, the prosecutors demanded longer sentences for all three, which will be deducted with their detention period. They were charged with three alternative articles on immorality, humiliation, and defamation — all of which are included under Indonesia’s Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE).
The defendants’ attorneys said they might consider appealing the sentences.
Last year in June, Galih appeared as a guest on a Youtube channel hosted by Rey. During the half-hour long video, 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.
The video has long been taken down, but it has since been reuploaded to Youtube with one copy reaching 3.6 million views.
Fairuz, along with her attorney, celebrity lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea, filed a report against Galih and Rey for spreading immoral content about her. Galih, Rey, and Pablo were charged with slander under UU ITE — which criminalizes the dissemination of defamatory content online — in mid-July of last year.
In response to their sentencing, Fairuz took to Instagram yesterday to express her gratitude for the outcome of the trial.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-7ADQKHDcs/
“Lies can cover up the truth, but not eliminate it… it’s only a matter of time until the truth prevails… Allahu ‘akbar (Allah is greater [than everything]). Thank you, ya Allah,” Fairuz wrote.
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