T

he pornography case involving Bandung-based pop band Peterpan frontman Nazriel Irham, better known as Ariel, seems to have drawn not only strong media interest, but also the personal interest of the judges in his case.

Syahrul Machfud, a member of the panel of judges in the case, has launched a book entitled Implementation of the Pornographic Law on Ariel Peterpan’s Case to give new insight regarding the details of Ariel’s trial process to the public. The 300-page book contains details of the entire trial process.

“I hope the book will serve as jurisprudence for judges and legal practitioners in a criminal case,” Syahrul said at the Bandung District Court on Tuesday. Syahrul, who graduated from Yogyakarta Islamic University in 1986, said that the decision to write the book with two fellow judges, Singgih Budi Prakoso and Agus Suwargi, was a breakthrough in Indonesia.

The panel of judges, he said, dared to break out of their comfort zone and in arranging legal consideration to prove an act of crime.

“Usually, the judge’s decision is based only on the prosecutor’s indictment, but for Ariel’s case, the judges ruled the case based on facts proven in court. That’s a progressive decision,” said Syahrul.

Ariel was sentenced to three-and-a-half years and fined Rp 250 million (US$26,500) by the Bandung District Court in January 2011, for being involved in pornography. He will complete two-thirds of his sentence, thus enabling him to be released on parole as of July 23.

For the first edition, the Graha Ilmu publishing house in Yogyakarta printed 3,000 copies of the book.

“The entire court process, from the beginning to the appeal level as well as the judges’ dynamic thoughts, are available in the book,” Syahrul said.

He denied that the book was being launched to coincide with Ariel’s conditional release. “It has nothing to do with Ariel’s release. I didn’t know when he would be released,” he added.

Ariel’s efforts to file an appeal with the West Java High Court and Supreme Court proved futile. Ariel has been detained by police since June 22, 2010, and has served around 25 months of his term. Prosecutors, said Syahrul, had only indicted Ariel based on his act of assisting the spread of pornography.

“But, the trial is based on facts. We were convinced that Ariel was the person who made the video which had reached the hands of others. But this was excluded in the indictment,” he said.