One year jail term demanded for alleged pimp

JAKARTA (JP): Prosecutor Rotua Marpaung urged the South Jakarta District Court yesterday to sentence Hartono Setyawan, the alleged owner of a high-class brothel, to one year imprisonment for pandering.

"I request that the presiding judge of the South Jakarta District Court sentence Hartono Setyawan to 12 months imprisonment for running a prostitution business," the prosecutor said.

Prosecutor Rotua charged that Hartono has violated Article 296 of the Criminal Code, which states that any person found guilty of procuring prostitutes faces a maximum prison sentence of one year and four months.

In the trial session led by presiding judge Stephanus Sutrisno, two other prosecutors, Eko Siwi Irianti and Esther Datu Rante, asked the court to imprison three of the alleged panderer's assistants for from seven months to nine months.

Prosecutor Esther asked the judge to sentence Hamzah, the receptionist of the alleged brothel, which is located on Jl. Prapanca 4, South Jakarta, and Ari Dewanto, a driver working there, to seven months in prison each. Prosecutor Eko Siwi then requested that the judge sentence Kho Ghay Goen, Hartono's alleged right-hand man, to nine months in jail.

Judge Stephanus offered to let Hartono, 42, prepare his own written defense statement before adjourning the trial session to Dec. 12. The judge is expected to read the verdicts for the other three defendants and to hear Hartono's final defense statement in the coming session.

Hartono has a long-standing notorious reputation as a panderer employing high-class call girls.

He was arrested on July 27, at his mansion in the Pondok Indah housing complex in South Jakarta.

Hartono was picked up following the arrest at the Century Park Hotel, Central Jakarta, of six occupants of the house on Jl. Prapanca 4, South Jakarta, which is widely known as a brothel.

The six people taken into custody were Kho Ghay Goen, Hamzah, Ari Dewanto and three known prostitutes, Nova Novianti, Natalia Risani and Nunuk Sriyanti, who allegedly worked for Hartono.

Nova Novianti and Natalia Risani, whose statements were presented as written testimony in a previous trial session on Nov. 2, said that Hartono was acting as their guardian when they were captured on July 23.

Hartono has acknowledged during the trial that he charged clients Rp 750,000 (US$343) for three hours with a woman and Rp 1.5 million for overnight. He said he took half of the women's incomes.

Hartono also said that he never ordered his "employees" to offer sexual services to clients. "It was more like an escort service, or guide service," he said.

Hartono was arrested in 1986 for running a brothel at the "Prapanca House", the name used by his clients for his place of business.

He was sentenced by the South Jakarta District Court to eight months imprisonment at that time. The verdict was later overruled by the Jakarta High Court, which sentenced him to two years probation. (mas)