Police apprehend local cyber-pimps
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The police have arrested a husband and wife who were allegedly operating a prostitution ring over the Internet for the past two months.
Ramdoni alias Rino and Yanti Sari alias Bela opened a website called the Rino Massage Club on the world wide web to offer sex escorts for between Rp 2 million and Rp 4 million for three hours of service.
"We arrested them yesterday evening (Thursday evening) at a hotel in South Jakarta after our officers ordered the sex escort services in an undercover operation," said the director of the city detective for special crimes division, Sr. Comr. Edmon Ilyas.
The couple employed some 20 female sex workers whose pictures and detailed information were uploaded to the Rino Massage Club homepage.
"They have been running the prostitution via the Internet for two months. However, they seem to have been in the prostitution business for the last two years," said Edmon.
Ramdoni and Yanti usually took a 40 percent cut and the sex workers took the remaining 60 percent from every payment the girls got from their customers, Edmon added.
Along with the nabbed pair, the police also confiscated the hard disc on their computer where the homepage was stored, payment receipts and over Rp 1 million in cash.
In another development, police have finished the dossiers for several pornography cases against four tabloids and a daily after receiving complaints lodged by several witnesses.
"We'll take (legal) action against those tabloids and newspapers which have allegedly disseminated pornographic materials. We just don't want the public to think that we've done nothing to deal with it (pornography)," said Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Prasetyo.
Some of the editors of the allegedly pornographic publications, have been summoned as suspects in the cases.
Those suspects are Tasmi P.S., chief editor of Lipstik, Nanang H, chief editor of Hallo Sayang, Irwan, chief editor of newspaper Lampu Merah, Nikita Kinamura, chief of Bom, Ipung, chief editor of tabloid Pria Pop, and Rully, chief editor of the tabloid Hot.
"We have completed the dossiers on Hallo Sayang and Lampu Merah, while finishing three other dossiers," said Prasetyo.
Hallo Sayang and Lampu Merah were reported by actress Sarah Azhari, after they ran nude photos and a story of Sarah who was clandestinely photographed in the Budi Han studio dressing room.
Prasetyo said police had taken testimonies from several experts, including a media expert, a language expert, and from the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI).