T

he Jakarta Police defended their decision to arrest two Apple iPad sellers, saying it was only one of a number of operations executed to prevent hi-tech gadget smuggling into the country.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Baharudin Djafar said Monday the arrest of online iPad sellers Dian Yudha Negara and Randy Lester Samusamu was part of efforts to curb the illegal trade of imported gadgets, conducted in collaboration with the industry, trade, and communications and information ministries.

“The latest case is just one of many other cases we are currently handling,” Baharudin told reporters.

He said the police were now investigating at least 11 cases involving the illegal trade of Apple’s iPads.

“In 2010 we handled five cases. Until June this year we handled six cases,” Baharudin said. Last year, the police arrested a number of suspects in the illegal sale of iPads, and confiscated 61 of the hi-tech gadgets.

In 2011, Baharudin said the police confiscated 71 iPads traded illegally by three suspects.

Dian and Randy have been in police custody since May 3 after the Jakarta Police arrested them in a sting operation involving undercover police masquerading as buyers of eight iPads offered online at www.kaskus.us.

The two suspects could spend five years in prison for violating the 1999 Consumer Protection Law. They were charged with an article that requires vendors to provide an Indonesian manual for electronic devices. The two were also charged with the 1999 Telecommunications Law, which is yet to recognize iPads as legal means of telecommunications.

The arrest of the two suspects has sparked an outcry. The public has condemned the police for basing their arrest on a consumer protection law.

Separately, Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) chairwoman Husna Zahir said the police had not been consistent in applying the law. She said that under the consumer protection law, police should have arrested all vendors who failed to provide Indonesian manuals for their products.

“The police must also arrest all other sellers of iPads without Indonesian manuals in all markets in the country,” she told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Husna said that if buyers had no complaints about the gadgets offered by Dian and Randy, the two suspects should not have been arrested.

“If sellers can provide clear information about their products and their buyers do not object after making a purchase, there should not be a problem,” she said.

Meanwhile, the defense lawyer of the two suspects, Virza Boy Izal, said the iPads were legal items purchased from a licensed vendor in Singapore and carried international guarantees.

“The iPads also went through Singaporean and Indonesian customs. The items should have been legitimate,” Virza said.