Diva Reza goes missing in real-life soap opera

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The recent series of events in singer Reza Artamevia's life resemble a soap opera. She rose to fame when she released her Keajaiban (Miracle) album in 1997.

Two years later, she married celebrity-cum-legislator Adjie Massaid. Their marriage was blessed with two daughters.

The next episode saw Reza's marriage fall apart, she filed for a divorce. Adjie accused her of having an affair and Reza said she had suffered months of psychological abuse at his hands. A custody battle soon followed.

And what a battle it was, with upmarket lawyers Hotman Paris Hutapea and Elza Syarief on Adjie's side, and women's rights activist Nursyahbani Katjasungkana on Reza's.

Both Adjie and Reza received threatening calls to their cell phones.

The story reached its climax when Reza disappeared at the busy Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's IIF terminal on Sunday afternoon. The diva had just returned from a show in Surabaya with five people from her management.

"We questioned the five people who were with her at the airport the day she went missing," said Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani on Wednesday. "We have also investigated the threatening calls made to Reza's cell phone, because Adjie and his relatives received threats too."

Firman said that the police had not yet concluded whether Reza was kidnapped or had planned to disappear.

One of Reza's lawyers, Damayanti Singgih, said "We just arrived and I saw her walking to a bench close to the baggage claim section. Later, when we finished claiming our bags, we couldn't find her. We looked all over the airport but she had disappeared."

The group waited 24 hours before contacting the police as a person who is gone for less than that time is not considered missing.

After the news broke out, the city police headquarters was stormed by infotainment media people, most of whom tried to relate her disappearance with Adjie, who promptly announced, through his lawyers, that he too had been receiving threats since last week.

His lawyers claimed he had been told he was in imminent danger of a bomb attack on his house.

Unlike most Indonesian dramas, which are loved for their melodrama, Reza's disappearance has disturbed her fans.

They wonder who is calling the shots, Reza, Adjie or "the kidnappers"?