Photographer says Samad pictures "80 percent" real

JAKARTA. Indonesian photographer Agan Harahap said the circulating pictures of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman Abraham Samad with a woman, thought to be Miss Indonesia 2014 Elvira Devinamira Wirayanti, were “80 percent” real.

The uncompromising pictures making rounds on social media were dismissed by Abraham as potentially engineered and a potential ploy to defame him a day after the KPK declared high-ranking police general and potential National Police chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan as a graft suspect on Tuesday.

However, Agan Harahap, who is also a Photoshop expert, comments that the photographs may be “80 percent” authentic due to the low resolution of the images, as if they were taken by mobile phone or webcam, which he says would make smooth editing more difficult.

“If it is an edited photo then the person who did it is truly an expert. If you zoom into the image, the pixels are magnified and I don’t see any trace of editing,” he said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

He added that despite the photo’s condition, he could not confirm if the man in the photograph was really Abraham Samad.

Many of Agan Harahap’s known photographic works include images which Photoshop celebrities into humorous or unusual backgrounds.

One of his works depicts Abraham Samad seemingly being “massaged” by American rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, with fellow rapper Snoop Dogg in the background of what looks like an Indonesian police station.