Tourists arrested in Bali after being accused of filming porn on the island
Three tourists have been arrested in Bali after local police accused them of filming pornographic content on the holiday island.A 23-year-old French woman, named by local media as Melisa Mireille Jeanine, was arrested on March 13 alongside a 24-year-old Italian man, reported in local media as Nadir ben Said, as the pair attempted to leave Indonesia via Denpasar airport for Thailand.Another man, a 26-year-old French national known only as ERB, was arrested in Canggu, Bali, on Monday.He was described as being the woman’s ‘manager’, according to AFP.Police chief Joseph Edward Purba of Bali’s Badung district told reporters that the trio were being held on suspicion of creating and distributing pornographic content for profit.“Their motivation to do the (alleged) crime is seeking profit from pornographic video content,” Purba told a press conference on Tuesday.“All the three suspects are now facing Indonesian electronic information and transaction laws for making and spreading the content.”Purba revealed that police had also seized three phones, a camera, a MacBook laptop and ‘motorcycle taxi vest’ from the tourists.X-rated content is highly illegal in Indonesia and the tourists could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty on the pornography charge and another six for online distribution.While Bali itself is predominantly Hindu, Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country that has conservative laws and harsh views on pornography.On January 2 of this year, Indonesia formally implemented its new Criminal Code — a lengthy legal document which ushered in a number of new and revised laws that criminalize premarital sex, cohabitation and public drunkenness.According to the new laws, adultery, premarital sex and cohabitation, or unmarried couples living together, are now potential crimes with penalties ranging from between six months to a year in jail.However, legal experts told news.com.au that unmarried couples traveling to Indonesia need not to wor...