In mid-2010, by far the biggest news in Indonesia was the celebrity sex tape scandal involving musician Nazril Irham (better known as Ariel), TV presenter Luna Maya and actress Cut Tari. Leaked videos of the pop star getting intimate with each of the celebrities caused a moral panic in the conservative country, ultimately leading to the musician becoming the first charged under Indonesia’s then recently passed pornography law (though he was eventually convicted under UU ITE, the Law on Electronic Transactions and Information) and sentenced to 3.5 years in jail.
With the sensation of 8-year-old case long faded from public memory, almost everybody had forgotten that both Luna Maya and Cut Tari had also been named suspects by the police in the case, although they were never brought to trial following Ariel’s conviction. As it turns out, the police never issued letters officially terminating the two women’s suspect status, meaning they have technically remained suspects under investigation this entire time (one might suspect the police simply forgot to issue the termination letters, but a National Police spokesperson claimed “the legal process was still ongoing”).
But the legal status of Luna Maya and Cut Tari may change today due to a legal motion being submitted by a third-party legal organization called the Indonesian Law Enforcement and Oversight Institute (LP3HI).
LP3HI submitted a pre-trial motion to the South Jakarta District Court last month to have Luna Maya and Cut Tari’s suspect status in the case finally revoked and a decision on the motion is expected to be rendered today.
Kurniawan Adi Nugroho, the deputy chairman of LP3HI, told CNN Indonesia that both women were the victims of the actions of other people and never should have been named suspects in the first place. He said his group’s pretrial motion would teach police not to act arbitrarily in carrying out their duties as well as give legal certainty to Luna Maya and Cut Tari.
LP3HI said they had no personal affiliation with either Luna Maya or Cut Tari and were not asked to submit the motion on either’s behalf. Neither woman has commented on the legal action, but one of Luna Maya’s celebrity friends, Melaney Ricardo, said Luna was upset due to the all the recent news stories about the old case and worried that it could hurt her career, which she managed to resuscitate after being ostracized by her industry in the wake of the 2010 scandal.
The South Jakarta District Court is expected to render their decision on the case today. If the pretrial motion is accepted, then Luna Maya and Cut Tari will finally no longer technically be suspects in the case. However, were the court to somehow reject the motion, they could both face continued legal uncertainty as well as renewed public scrutiny.
