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Bandung. Nazril “Ariel” Irham, the lead singer of the band Peterpan who was jailed for distributing pornography following a controversial sex video scandal, is participating in an “assimilation” program that could lead to a conditional release in July, an official said on Thursday.

“He has been participating in the assimilation program for two weeks now,” said Nasir Almi, the head of the West Java Justice and Human Rights Office.

The program has seen Ariel, who was sentenced in January last year to three years and six months in jail, work in an architectural consulting firm in Bandung for five days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. At night he goes back to the Kebonwaru penitentiary in Bandung.

“There is close supervision from a [jail] personnel,” said Budiman, head of the office’s prisoner service department.

Under the law, Ariel had to serve at least half of his jail term to be eligible to take part in an assimilation program. Having been in custody since his arrest in 2010, he completed half his sentence in December.

The assimilation program will last until his conditional release, if granted.

“We will observe his behavior during the assimilation program and if it is in line with the laws and agreed regulations, then he can get the conditional release,” Nasir said.

He added that the employer was proposed by Ariel.

“We approved it because it is in line with the expertise of the concerned, architecture,” he said.

Ariel studied architecture at Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung.

In mid-2010, Ariel was arrested and charged in after sex tapes featuring him and two actresses circulated online. He was later found guilty of distributing pornography, even though the tapes had been taken from his laptop without his knowledge by a former Peterpan employee, Reza Rizaldy.

Reza gave the files to his cousin, who put them on the Internet. Reza was sentenced to two years, but the cousin was not charged.

Police on Wednesday said they were still investigating television celebrities and models Luna Maya and Cut Tari for their involvement in the sex tapes.

Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution, a National Police spokesman, said the case had not been dropped but that it was difficult to find sufficient evidence to complete the dossiers.

Neither Luna, Ariel’s girlfriend, or Tari, who was married at the time, have been charged.