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Owner of Islamic matchmaking site arrested, charged under Pornography Law
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An illustration of an internet user (Shutterstock/File)
T
he Jakarta Police arrested on Sunday Aris Wahyudi for allegedly establishing a prostitution site under the guise of a matchmaking website.
Based on its investigation into nikahsirri.com, police have charged Aris under the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law and the Pornography Law, Jakarta Police special crimes unit director Sr. Comr. Adi Derian said.
"The website offered nikah siri [unregistered marriage] services by offering virgin girls and boys for money," Adi told reporters on Sunday.
The website, which has been blocked by the ministry, uses the tagline "mengubah zina menjadi ibadah" (changing adultery into worship).
To become member of the site, people were required to pay a registration fee of Rp 100,000 (US$7.50). They were later given access to choose a bride or groom, Adi said.
Since going online on Tuesday, 2,700 people had registered, while 300 people had applied to become “partners”, which comprises brides, grooms, wedding officiates and witnesses.
“The website uses a coin system, in which every bride or groom is determined with a different number of coins. One coin is worth Rp 100,000,” Adi said.
The suspect received Rp 5 million from the business activity, he said, adding that his team was investigating whether the website was connected to human tracking networks, as some of the “partners” were underage. (yon/wit)
