TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Two arrested Brits request to be deported
Two British journalists, recently arrested in Riau Islands for illegally making a documentary, have requested that their cases to be processed so they can be deported as soon as possible, their lawyer says
Change Size
T
wo British journalists, recently arrested in Riau Islands for illegally making a documentary, have requested that their cases to be processed so they can be deported as soon as possible, their lawyer says.
Todung Mulya Lubis, the lawyer of Neil Bonner, aged 31, and Becky Prosser, 30, said on Friday that the request was made because his clients had been in detention in Riau Islands for too long.
'So far, their physical and psychological conditions are good. But, they have been detained by immigration too long; about three months. They have admitted that they were using tourist visas when filming but that is because their visa requests had not been processed by the Indonesian Embassy in London,' he told The Jakarta Post.
Bonner and Prosser were arrested in May by a Naval patrol for misusing their tourist visas by making a documentary film on piracy in the Strait of Malacca.
The nine Indonesians assisting them were also arrested while the group was taking footage around Belakang Padang Island near Batam.
The two journalists face up to five years' imprisonment for visa misuse, a local official says.
Meanwhile, the nine Indonesians involved in the unlicensed documentary could be charged with breaking the 2009 Law on film, which carries a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment or a fine of Rp 10 billion (US$700,500).
Todung said that the penalty his clients were threatened with was too heavy, considering the crime was only an immigration violation.
'The documentary was for a good purpose and was not propaganda. I think this [crime] is only a violation of immigration rules so it is better that they be deported soon,' Todung said, adding that his clients were ready should Immigration still want to bring the case to court. (ika)(++++)
