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Police in war against online prostitution
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On alert -- A police officer shows several pieces of evidence they confiscated in a raid against an online prostitution ring recently. (Tempo/File)
O
nly two days after a child prostitution ring was uncovered in Bogor, West Java, the Indonesian police announced the arrest of two people for allegedly operating a Twitter micro blogging account to sell the services of sex workers.
West Java Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus said the two suspects, identified only with their initials, MIR, 21, and NNU, 25, sold sexual services for between Rp 1.5 million (US$ 113.49) and Rp 5 million.
“They first received a down payment of between Rp 500,000 and Rp 1 million. The remainder was to be paid directly to the sex workers by their clients,” said Yusri in Bandung on Thursday. The two suspects received 30 percent of the fee from the sex workers, he added.
Officers from the West Java Police’s Special Crime Investigation Directorate arrested MIR and NNU in an operation on Aug. 11. In their Twitter account, they offered sexual services in several cities, such as Bandung, Bali, Bekasi, Bogor, Jakarta, Jambi, Medan, Purwokerto, Surabaya, Tangerang and Yogyakarta.
The police’s Special Crime Investigation Directorate deputy director Adj. Sr. Comr. Diki Budiman said the arrest was the result of an online tracing conducted by the cybercrime patrol unit in his directorate.
The growing problem of sex services being offered online has led to a more intense police cyberpatrol in Indonesia. A separate cyberpatrol conducted by the National Police’s Crime Investigation Department (Bareskrim) led to the arrest of AR in Puncak, West Java, on Tuesday, for his alleged involvement in an underage male prostitution ring. The number of victims in his prostitution ring was more than 99 children offered to male clients.
“We will completely investigate this [child prostitution] ring. We will arrest anyone involved in this crime,” said National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian on Friday. (ebf)
