National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said police have arrested a man, identified only by the initial K, who allegedly posed as the distributor of the celebrity sex clip.

Ito said that K helped police track down other distributors.

“Right now, some of my subordinates are with K in Bandung to track down other distributors,”
Ito said Thursday but did not elaborate further.

Ito said K was arrested after police managed to extract data from several sources, including an
external hard drive and a laptop computer owned by Ariel, the pop singer held at National Police headquarters.

Ariel has been named a suspect after police suspected him of producing and helping distribute two sex videos. The other video allegedly featured Ariel and television presenter Cut Tari. Cut has publicly admitted to being in the video.

So far, police claim they have arrested 12 people for their alleged role in distributing the clips.

Ito said police requested the immigration directorate general issue a travel ban on Luna.

“We have prevented her from going abroad so she can be available for further questioning. But we have decided not to detain her as we believe she is cooperating with us in the investigation,” he said.

Previously, police spokesman Sr. Comr. Marwoto Soeto said Luna was arrested Wednesday night after being questioned earlier in the day.

Marwoto said it was “likely” Luna was arrested for not cooperating in the police investigation.

Currently, both Luna and Ariel continue to deny they were the people in the videos.

Ito said police were in the middle of gathering evidence that could link the people allegedly behind the distribution of the videos.

“We are halfway there. Once we have gathered solid evidence, it is likely that we will not need a confession. The evidence would be enough,” he said.

Neta S. Pane of Indonesia Police Watch said he suspected the police were using the controversy
around the celebrity sex video to cover up more important issues from the public.

“There are many cases currently under police investigation that deserve more attention from the people such as the tax official bribery case and [former National Police chief detective] Susno’s case but the police have opted to investigate this case, which, at worst, is a petty crime,” he said.

Police have also come under the spotlight for their reticence and inaction over allegations of suspiciously large bank accounts belonging to several police generals. Suspicions were first aroused in 2005, but there is no information about the progress of the investigation.

Tempo news magazine recently reported on the case in a cover story, which depicted a man with a uniform being led by fat piggy banks, an image the police objected to. They planned to sue the magazine for the cover, but later backtracked.

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