Playboy Editor in Indonesia Goes to Prison

The former editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia began a 2-year prison sentence today for publishing pictures of scantily clothed women, riling free speech activists in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Erwin Arnada, 47, did not speak as he was escorted from the prosecutor's detainee car under tight security at the Cipinang prison in the capital, Jakarta.

When the now-defunct magazine hit newsstands in 2006, Islamic hard-liners smashed its editorial offices and started legal proceedings. The magazine had photos of women in undergarments, occasionally with partially exposed breasts, but the pictures were less risque than some appearing in other magazines sold openly on street corners. Hard-liners argued, however, the icon of American cultural influence was harmful to morals, and the Supreme Court agreed. (More Indonesia stories.)