Former editor of Playboy Indonesia fails to show up for jail term

Oct 8, 2010, 8:16 GMT

Jakarta - Prosecutors on Friday were searching for the former editor of Playboy Indonesia magazine, who failed to hand himself in to serve a jail term for indecent publication.

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.

Chief editor Erwin Arnada was arrested and charged following complaints against him by hardline 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.

'We have given Erwin Arnada two opportunities to turn himself in, but he never showed up,' South Jakarta chief prosecutor Muhammad Yusuf was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency.

Arnada said in a post on the microblogging site Twitter that his lawyer had submitted a petition to the Supreme Court requesting a review of his case.

'I will face the sentence with a big heart,' he said, without saying whether he would turn himself in.

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 criticized Arnada's prosecution as an attack on freedom of expression.

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