Singer Ariel and actress Luna Maya after being questioned
at National Police headquarters
in relation to the sex video scandal
Singer Ariel and actress Luna Maya made their first public appearance since a sex video scandal broke earlier this week by answering a police summons for questioning on Friday afternoon.
National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi told reporters the celebrity couple were to be questioned over how an explicit video of them having sex made its way onto the Internet, creating a nationwide sensation.
The National Police said on Thursday that Luna, Ariel and Cut Tari, a popular actress and television presenter, not lookalikes, were involved in the steamy videos. The two women are seen in different videos having sex with Ariel, the lead vocalist of the pop group Peterpan, whose real name is Nazril Ilham.
A video believed to show Ariel and Luna was the first to surface, followed a few days later by one featuring Ariel and Cut Tari.
National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Zainuri Lubis said that Cut Tari failed to answer a summons on Friday and will be re-invited.
“All the people involved in this video could be charged if it is proved that they intentionally distributed the videos. However, so far they will only be questioned as witnesses,” Zainuri said.
Police still do not know how the videos became public, he said. “We are coordinating with an Internet service provider and another party related to information technology,” he said.
The videos, which are still racing around the Internet and being sent from phone to phone, have been by far the most talked-about subject in the media over the last week. Politicians have denounced them as a sign of rampant immorality, students have had their cell phones inspected for copies and vendors have done a brisk trade in DVDs of the three videos, two involving Luna and one Cut Tari.
Meanwhile, the news portal Kompas.com quoted Cut Tari as denying that she was in one of the videos. Luna and Ariel have also denied being in any videos.
After the questioning, Ariel and Luna’s lawyer, OC Kaligis, confirmed that his clients had been summoned. “They are only victims and this is related to [their] privacy,” the lawyer said. “The rest is ‘no comment’.”
Reporters peppered the attorney with questions about whether his clients were on the videos and whether a rumor that Ariel had lost a hard drive containing the videos was true. Each was met with “No comment.”
Ariel and Luna did not speak to reporters.
Gatot Dewa Broto, a spokesman for the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, said that the ministry is working closely with the police to trace who uploaded the videos to the Internet for the first time.
“We managed to track the IP address on Thursday,” he said, adding that from the address, it would be possible to track the location and device used to upload the videos. “We can confirm that it was not uploaded from an Internet cafe,” Gatot said, “and the person uploaded it in Indonesia.”
He said the first video went up on the Internet on June 6.
