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Piracy film makers from UK to face trial soon
The Batam Immigration Office in Riau Islands province is still investigating a case involving two UK citizens caught filming in Serapat Island waters
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he Batam Immigration Office in Riau Islands province is still investigating a case involving two UK citizens caught filming in Serapat Island waters.
"As of last week, [the two] were still under investigation. Their case files are almost complete and hopefully can soon be handed over to the prosecutor," said the Foreign Ministry's information and media director Sofia Sudharma on Wednesday as quoted by tempo.co.
According to Sofia, once the Batam Prosecutor's Office (Kejari) had declared the case files to be complete, they would be submitted to the Kejari's judge. "The Batam Kejari will then conduct a trial," said Sofia.
The UK citizens, Neil Bonner and Becky Prosser, were arrested by the Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) on May 29 near Serapat Island, in Batam waters, while performing a reenactment for a film about the piracy that frequently occurs in the Malaka and Singapore straits. In total, 11 crew members were caught by the naval patrol officers. The other nine, who are Indonesians, were not arrested as they had been hired to be part of the film.
Sofia said that Bonner and Prosser entered Indonesia without journalism or media visas.
"They didn't have any permits to create a film," she added.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has said that the case is purely related to visas.
"It is an old case and purely an immigration issue," said Retno on Tuesday. (kes)(+++)
