Erwin Arnada, 48, who had been editor of the now-defunct magazine, was serving a two-year prison sentence after a protracted legal battle that began in 2006 and saw him imprisoned last October when a lower court's acquittal was overturned. "This is part of the history of the struggle for freedom of the press," Arnada said as he left Cipinang prison in Jakarta on Friday afternoon wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "Journalism is not a crime."

His lawyer Heriyanto Yang said a judicial review panel of the Supreme Court decided late last month to reverse the court's own earlier conviction. Bureaucratic delays in such decisions being announced are not uncommon in Indonesia.