Fyi for ignorant,hypocrite fundamentalists&courts alike,syekh"dirty old man"puji is clearly wrong.there's a name to his crime and its called STATUTORY RAPE,a felony punishable by over 20 yrs in jail.ariel's actions are different cuz they're adults&its consensual sex.am no legal expert but if d judges or prosecutors can't seem to tell d difference there's something really wrong.but then again its indonesia-go figure-sigh..

What are courts for? What purposes do prison sentences serve? Deterrents? Punishment? Is any of what we see justice?

My experience here is that 'justice' in Indonesia is leniency, understanding, a short custodial sentence, sometimes with remission, if you have the right connections, and /or enough wealth and power to impress on the prosecutors that they better not give you too harsh a sentence or there will be trouble. Besides as most everyone at the top is involved in dodgy deeds it would not do to be harsh, because, who knows, it may be them found out next time, so this is some sort of uneasy alliance. (The found-out frauds usually spend their short time in in a plusher prison, with bribable flunkies everywhere, so life will not be so dull).

Terrorists have traditionally had a not so hard time in jail, being allowed cell-phones (no pun intended), internet access and press-conferences. Images of Indonesian police officers laughing and joking with terrorists are available on the internet.

For poor people, those with insufficient connections, or those of an unpopular faith, punishment is seen as the correct and fitting pronouncement, so sentences are longer.

Handy that, unofficial marriages to under-age girls. If Indonesia ever needed a decent implementation of human rights rulings and true gender equality, it is now. But age-old customs take a while to die out, especially if the state turns a blind eye. Even the 6-year sentence will likely be commuted, and there will be an early release. Dumb innocents like Ariel have enraged the religious idiots who are able strangely to influence government policy. Human sexuality has always been a problem for Islam, and these days, the leaked uploaded video seems far more important than 100 million people subsisting in poverty.

I thought this dirty man is actually already in jail! Funny just that on the home page of JG it was incidentally together with the "abduction" of a 13 years young girl by a 21 year old fellow in the same column mentioned. Now what is the worse of sins - this 45 years old pedophile bugger marrying a 12 year young girl because "it's acceptable under Islamic law" or a young man sweet-talking a young girl to take ride in a car...

If he was a catholic priest in the West, they'd just quietly find him a job in another town.

Well surely personal pornography is worse than pedophilia?

The reverse logic of Indonesia at work again.