Indonesian star imprisoned for stolen sex tape

Ariel sentenced for violating pornography law.

Indonesian pop star Nazril ''Ariel'' Irham has been fined 250 million rupiah and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for videos that were stolen from his hard drive and distributed online.

The sex tapes featured Irham, his celebrity girlfriend Luna Maya, and former girlfriend Cut Tari. They were allegedly stolen from Irham's laptop by his former producer Reza Rizaldy.

Rizaldy was sentenced to two years imprisonment and fined 250 million rupiah ($27,400) for distributing the videos, which went viral after being posted on Facebook.

Irham's defence argued that he was a victim of theft and did not intend to distribute the videos to the public.

Article 27 of Indonesia's Information and Electronic Transaction Act punished those who distributed indecent electronic material "knowingly and without authority".

But Judge Singgih Budi Prakoso found Irham guilty of breaching Indonesia's 2008 Pornography Act, which punished those who created, reproduced, or distributed pornographic content.

Prakoso told the court in the West Java capital of Bandung that Irham showed no remorse, and did nothing to prevent the distribution of the videos.

Cyberlaw lecturer Sinta Dewi of Indonesia's Padjadjaran University said the case highlighted the importance of cybersecurity.

"We must be very careful to secure our personal belongings due to the use of modern technologies," she told iTnews.

"I think ... we have to secure our [privacy rights] by keeping our personal [data] very carefully."

Dewi said that Irham should have been protected by Article 28G of the Indonesian Constitution, which entitled citizens to "protection of self, his family, honour, dignity, the property he owns".

"From my perspective, [the] case has been very controversial from the very beginning ... Ariel [Irham] is only the victim of Reza Rizaldy and does not have the intention to distribute the content to the public," she said.