THE FORMER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of Playboy Indonesia is being sought by police after failing to appear to begin a jail sentence of two years for publishing pictures of scantily-clad women.

The Press Association reports that Erwin Arnada is “now at large” and that prosecutors wish to present Arnada with a warrant for his arrest.

Arnada was found guilty by the Supreme Court in August of violating the indecency laws of a predominantly Muslin nation.

His lawyers, however, were unaware of his whereabouts despite saying that he would begin serving his two-year sentence on Thursday.

El-Shinta radio broadcast an interview with Arnada in which he said “I’m not a fugitive, I will turn myself in this week,” but it has not been confirmed when this interview was recorded or where Mr Arnada was at the time.

Controversy has surrounded Edwin Arnada before as people protested about the publication of Playboy Indonesia in 2006 with members of the Islamic Defenders Front storming the offices of the magazine based in south Jakarta.

Legal proceedings were also taken against Arnada in 2007, but he was acquitted by a Jakarta District Court on the grounds that pictures published in the magazine could not be deemed obscene.

The first issue of the magazine, published in 2006, featured one of Indonesia’s most famous authors Pramoedya Ananta Toer and according to The New York Times, the 100,000 copies produced “sold out briskly”.