Top Indonesian model detained over sex video

JAKARTA - An Indonesian model and television presenter has been detained for being uncooperative in an investigation into sex videos allegedly involving her and her rockstar boyfriend, police said Thursday.

Luna Maya, one of the country’s most famous celebrities, was picked up by police Wednesday night, said a national police spokesman, Marwoto Soeto.

“She wasn’t being cooperative,” Marwoto said, declining to say what charges Maya was facing.

Police last month detained rock star Nazriel Irham, known as Ariel, after videos allegedly showing him having sex with Maya and another television presenter, Cut Tari, hit the internet.

Ariel is facing charges of producing pornographic material and could face up to 12 years in prison.

In the videos, a man is seen taping sexual acts with two women.

Ariel and Maya were the faces of the Lux beauty soap but the commercial was withdrawn in the wake of the scandal.

The scandal has shocked Indonesia, a primarily Muslim nation where many people have conservative views on sex, and dominated local news for weeks.

Ariel, Maya and Tari earlier denied they were the people in the videos, saying they were victims of defamation.

But last week the two women apologised to the public, even though they stopped short of admitting they were the people in the sex videos.

The affair has been dubbed by Indonesians as Peterporn, a play on Ariel’s former rock band Peterpan.

The public uproar over the videos has sparked a debate over the need to control the internet with Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring saying it underscored the need to filter undesirable web content.

Indonesia has enjoyed unfettered media freedom since the fall of autocratic president Suharto in 1998 after 32 years in power.