Indonesia Prison System Rocked by Drug, Sex Scandal

Indonesian authorities suspended a prison warden Thursday after a model claimed she routinely met her boyfriend, who is on death row, in a private room at the jail to share sex and drugs.

In the latest scandal to hit the country's notoriously corrupt prison system, Vanny Rossyane, 22, said she had visited drugs kingpin Freddy Budiman three times a week at the Cipinang penitentiary complex in the capital, Jakarta.

"I would go at 11 in the morning and stay until around five. We would ML and take crystal meth," she told local media, using letters to indicate "make love".

"There were two rooms, we kept changing. One of them was the warden's room," she said, referring to Thurman Hutapea, warden of the complex's jail for prisoners with drugs convictions.

Rossyane's account has led to a flurry of salacious media reports and comments on Twitter, some denigrating the couple and others calling for the warden to be sacked.

A spokesman for the correctional facilities department at the justice ministry said the prison warden was being questioned.

"He was suspended because we have to question him based on reports received Wednesday. We will wait for the results," he told Agence France Presse.

Budiman, 37, was sentenced to death on July 15 by a court in Jakarta for attempting to organize the smuggling of 1.4 million ecstasy pills from China.

Budiman was already in prison for another narcotics offence when he tried to organize the drugs run.

The Cipinang penitentiary, where high-profile corruption convicts and wealthy drug dealers are locked up, has been long criticized for giving special favors to those who can pay.

The jail has been caught giving some prisoners large private rooms and allowing them to bring in maids, furniture, air conditioners and televisions.

The case emerged two weeks after a major jailbreak from a prison which had more than two times its capacity of inmates. Convicted terrorists were among those who escaped.

The jailbreak on the island of Sumatra prompted calls for action on the country's overstretched prison system.