Court did not know Arnada was still in prison after acquittal

The Supreme Court says it had never received reports that former Playboy Indonesia editor Erwin Arnada was still incarcerated even though he had been acquitted by a case review.

“We never received reports on his detention,” Supreme Court chief justice Harifin Tumpa said to reporters on Friday. “I would say his detention has no base. Our ruling has acquitted him.”

The court ruled on May 25 that the indictment by prosecutors could not be accepted. “We found it was incomplete because there were allegations related to the press law,” Harifin said.

The verdict was made on a case review filed by Arnada’s team of lawyers as he began his sentence. They argued that the judges were wrong to use the criminal code instead of Indonesia’s press law.

Arnada was previously acquitted by a district court in 2007, but the Supreme Court convicted him last year on a prosecutors’ appeal. It ruled that Arnada had violated indecency provisions in the criminal code.

He is serving a two-year prison sentence for publishing pictures of scantily clad women.

“Ask the prosecutors’ office. They put him there, I believe,” Harifin added.