iPad resellers acquitted

There is some sanity and logic, even justice, at the Indonesian courts after all. The Central Jakarta District Court has finally thrown out the case where the Police, in a fit of misplaced priorities and zealotry to enforce the Law, sought the prosecution of two men trying to resell a few iPads in Indonesia – on the lame excuse that they did not have manuals for using the iPad in Indonesian. What’s curious is which are the 40 listed items mentioned in the story below that are required by law to have Indonesian language manuals? Why is it so important for them to have Indonesian manuals? Or the more appropriate question in Indonesia: “Who stands to profit from translating the manuals and printing them in Indonesian?”

Curious iPad Case Closed as Court Clears Resellers | The Jakarta Globe

Central Jakarta District Court judges acquitted two men on Tuesday who were controversially charged with violating consumer protection laws after selling Apple iPads without Indonesian-language manuals.

“Based on expert testimony and an official letter issued by the Trade Ministry, the iPad is not among the 45 items that must have Indonesian-language manuals,” presiding judge Sapawi said.

Sapawi also said that since the two defendants were not distributors, importers or manufacturers, they were under no legal obligation to be certified. The prosecutors had accused the two of operating without certification.

The court ordered the return of the iPads in question and cleared the two men, Randy Lester Samu and Dian Yudha Negara, who had found themselves at the center of a storm of controversy since their arrests on Nov. 24, 2010, in a sting operation.

Policemen posing as buyers had responded to an advertisement on Kaskus, an online forum. Randy and Dian told police they bought the tablet computers in Singapore, but they were not able to produce customs papers.

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