NZ man files complaint to KY for `unlawful' detention

JAKARTA: New Zealander Robert James McNeice submitted last week a complaint against the South Jakarta District Court for his 15-month "unlawful" detention to Indonesia's Judicial Commission.

McNeice has been at the National Police's detention center since his arrest in Aceh in August last year, at the request of Australian authorities in an alleged fraud case.

He waited 11 months before his first appearance in court on July 2.

His lawyer Syamsudin Pesilette said the South Jakarta District Court ordered the delay of the first court session due to McNeice's poor hold of the Indonesian language.

"On July 23, 2009, when McNeice had prepared his statement and brought a translator, the panel of judges rejected his statement," Syamsudin said in the complaint letter addressed to the Judicial Commission that The Jakarta Post received a copy of.

The court's rejection made McNeice's extradition application unsuccessful, the lawyer added.

McNeice's Indonesian spokesman Multatuli said the Australian and New Zealand citizenship holder was developing his trade aid project for fishermen on Aceh's western coast at the time of his arrest. - JP