Indonesian Sex Tape Will Go to Ethics Council as Lawmaker Says Likeness ‘Hard to Deny’

The House of Representatives Ethics Council will investigate a sex tape allegedly involving two House lawmakers by calling on experts to confirm or refute the allegations.

“We will get experts to analyze whether it was true or they just look similar,” council chairman M. Prakosa said on Tuesday.

Prakosa said the Ethics Council had not received photos or the tape, adding that the council would use the utmost care in handling the case.

“For sure, if it is clear or similar in appearance to them, we have to be careful because this relates to someone’s dignity,” he said.

House Commission I member Roy Suryo said he was almost certain that the woman in the tape was a House Commission IX member with the initials K.M.N.

Roy made the conclusion after comparing photos of the woman with screenshots from the tape.

“It’s hard to deny it, although I can’t say 100 percent that the [woman] is K.M.N. after I compared it with her photos,” Roy said after submitting his analysis to the Ethics Council.

Roy said he could not identify the man in the video because he only received photos from the tape and had not seen the tape.

To avoid a conflict of interest, Roy asked the Ethics Council to find other telematics experts to analyze the photos and tape.

“As a House member, I should avoid conflicts of interest and politicization [of the case] because no matter what I say, I would be accused of having a vested interest since the two lawmakers are from different factions than mine,” the Democratic Party politician said.

The tape allegedly involves two politicians from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

It is also alleged that the two politicians are married, but not to each other. One of the lawmakers said to be involved denied that it was him.

“Yes, I’m still monitoring [the developments] and I can assure you that I wasn’t involved,” the lawmaker, identified as A.B., said via a text message.

Meanwhile, House Commission IX deputy chairman Irgan Chairul Mahfiz said the tape was intended to further taint the House’s deteriorating image.

Video and photo technology allowed for digital doctoring that could easily be used as a means of character assassination, he said.

The Web site that initially hosted the video, kilikitik.net, has been blocked, presumably by the government.

Sex scandals involving Indonesian politicians are not new, but none have been jailed, unlike Nazril “Ariel” Irham of the band Peterpan, who was sentenced to three years and six months for distributing pornography after a controversial sex video scandal.

Though Ariel was jailed for his exploits with two starlets, rumors persisted that he had bedded — and filmed — several women, including the married relative of a well-connected businessman, leading to his jail term.