Police Arrest Three Suspects in Live Broadcast Hijacking of English Premier League on Vidio.com, Face 8 Years in Prison!

Kapanlagi.com - The case of hijacking live broadcasts of English Premier League matches seems to be never-ending. This time, three suspects were arrested by the West Java Regional Police's Directorate of Special Criminal Investigation (Ditreskrimsus) for hijacking from the Vidio.com platform.

The suspects live-streamed the matches on Instagram. West Java Police Public Relations Head, Commissioner Ibrahim Tompo, stated that the uncovered case involved the criminal offense of illegal transmission.

"The crime scene was in Ngamprah, West Bandung Regency, which falls under the jurisdiction of the West Java Police. The suspects' modus operandi involved using Instagram accounts created under the usernames @warung_emyu and @united_hulk to live-stream English Premier League football matches without the permission of the copyright holders, namely vidio.com," he said at the West Java Police Headquarters on Monday (8/7/2023).

1. Perpetrators Also Promote Online Gambling

In this case, Ibrahim said, the police have examined several witnesses and expert witnesses in the field of IT, criminal law, as well as expert witnesses in the field of trademarks and geographical indications.

Furthermore, the suspects have also promoted online gambling sites during the broadcast of English League matches. West Java Regional Police Director of Special Criminal Investigation, Commissioner Pol Deni Okvianto, stated that they began investigating this case after receiving a report on April 30.

"In addition to the illegal football broadcasts, there were also uploads, photos, and posts on the account that contained accessible gambling content. This violates article 27 paragraph 2. We then conducted profiling of the account holders and found three suspects," he said.

2. Information and Electronic Transactions Law

West Java Regional Police's Criminal Investigation Unit (Ditreskrimsus Polda Jawa Barat) arrested three suspects who hijacked the English Premier League broadcast from vidio.com. Photo (Liputan6.com / Arya Prakasa)

Ibrahim revealed that the suspects are suspected to have been running this business for a year. They sold access for Rp50,000 and have invited 14,000 people to watch the broadcasts.

"All of this was done self-taught because the suspects did not have jobs. From the reporter's side, the estimated losses suffered according to preliminary calculations amount to Rp1 billion," he explained.

The suspects are charged with article 48 paragraph (1) in conjunction with article 32 paragraph (1) and/or article 45 paragraph (2) in conjunction with article 27 paragraph (2) of the Information and Electronic Transactions Law No. 19 of 2016 amending Law No. 11 of 2008 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions, and/or article 25 paragraph (2) letter A of Law No. 28 of 2014 concerning copyright.

"The punishment carries a maximum prison sentence of 8 years and/or a maximum fine of Rp2 billion," said Deni.

(kpl/gtr)