A SINGER and actress in Indonesia is facing jail after a sex tape was stolen from her phone and published online.
Gisella Anastasia, 30, featured in a 19-second clip that went viral in November, and is now accused of breaking the country’s controversial anti-pornography laws.
Anastasia is a mother and former runner-up on the Indonesian Idol talent show.
The video was reportedly shot in a hotel room in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra in 2017.
Two days after it was uploaded, a lawyer reported the clip to police in capital Jakarta, saying it should be investigated to “stop the distribution of porn on social media that has been viewed by millions of Indonesians”.
Anastasia and a man identified as Michael Yukinobu Defretes have admitted that they are the couple seen in the clip, but say it was taken from a mobile phone Anastasia had lost and uploaded online by someone else.
Local police have said two men have now been charged in relation to the incident, but that Anastasia and Defretes are also being investigated.
Indonesians are banned by law from appearing as a model or object in any pornographic content.
Police confirmed that Anastasia had been questioned twice, but added that neither she nor Defretes had been detained, the South China Morning Post reported.
A spokesperson for Jakarta Police said: “When asked why she recorded it, she said that it’s for personal documentation, and that she would never resell it.”
If convicted, the pair face up to 12 years in prison.
The controversial laws have in the past seen high-profile people jailed for failing to prevent private content being published online.
In 2010, popular singer-songwriter Nazril Irham, known as Ariel, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for appearing in two different sex tapes which were leaked online after his house was broken into and his laptop stolen.
No evidence was presented at trial to suggest Irham had published the videos himself, but a judge reportedly convicted him for negligence in failing to prevent their distribution.
Ariel served two years of his prison sentence before being released for good behaviour.
The laws have been strongly opposed by human rights lawyers and women’s right activists, who argue they frequently criminalise people who should be protected by the state.
