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udges at the Central Jakarta District Court acquitted on Tuesday the two defendants in the controversial case surrounding the online sale of Apple iPads: Dian Yudha Negara and Randy Lester Samusamu.

Their acquittal prompted their team of lawyers to urge prosecutors and police to terminate legal proceedings on similar cases.

“Prosecutors and police officers should not continue with other iPad sellers’ trials because the process is against the law,” lawyer Alexander Lay said after the trial.

Dian and Randy’s case came under the spotlight after they were arrested in November last year by the undercover police officers, who masqueraded as buyers of eight iPads via an Internet forum.

The defendants were charged with violating the 1999 Consumer Protection Law because they did not provide Indonesian-language manuals for the iPads they sold. They were also charged with violating the 1999 Telecommunications Law.

Prosecutors demanded that each of the two defendants be sentenced to five months in prison.

Similar charges were made against Winoto alias Calvin, Charlie Sianipar and Wiwi Siswanto. They are currently standing trial in West Jakarta, South Jakarta and Central Jakarta district courts, respectively, for selling iPads without manuals in Indonesian language.

Presiding judge Sapawi said during Tuesday’s court hearing that both the primary and secondary charges against Dian and Randy had not been proved, and therefore, both should be acquitted of all charges.

“Based on the evidence and expert testimonies, the iPad does not belong to the list of 45 telecommunications devices that require manuals in Indonesian as stipulated in the consumer protection law. Thus, the primary charge is not proven,” he read.

Sapawi said both defendants were also not proven to be merchants, distributors or importers selling iPads; therefore, they were not obliged to acquire certification for the iPads.

“Because neither the primary nor secondary charges were proven, the two defendants should be acquitted of all charges and their good names restored,” he said, adding that the eight tablets kept as evidence, two 64 GB 3G iPads and six 16 GB 3G iPads, should be returned to the defendants.

Randy said that he was “so proud of the panel of judges, who had thoroughly considered all the evidence and testimonies.”

Virza Roy Hizzal, a member of the defendants’ legal team, said the team would urge the prosecutors not to lodge an appeal with a high court.

“Attorney General Basrief Arief had previously said that if the defendants were acquitted of all charges, then the prosecutors didn’t have to appeal,” he said.

Dian said he would “just give them [the iPads] to my parents-in-law.” (swd)