Indonesian blogger posts photo of president's face on body of singer

Indonesian police questioned an Internet blogger for posting a picture of the president's face on the body of a famous singer, but did not charge him after he apologized for the act, an officer said Thursday. Herman Saksono, 24, also agreed to take the photo down from his blog, said Lt. Col. Condro Kirono, police chief in the central Javanese city of Jogyakarta.

"We summoned him and told him that he was breaking the law," Kirono said. "He said he was sorry, and explained he was just messing around."

The posting showed President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's face on the body of Mayang Sari, a famous singer. The photo allegedly showed Sari cavorting in a hotel room with a man who resembles one of the sons of the former dictator Suharto, local media reported.

Saksono was not available for comment. But in a brief posting on his blog, he acknowledged taking the photo down for "reasons that could not be revealed here."

"It appears we have to remember that we have only been learning about freedom of expression for seven years," he wrote, in reference to the democratic reforms ushered into Indonesia after the downfall of Suharto in 1998.

Despite the new freedoms, several student protesters and newspapers editors have been convicted of "insulting the president" in recent years under the country's Dutch-era criminal code, reports the AP. I.L.