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wo British journalists detained by Indonesian authorities for making a documentary about piracy in the Malacca Strait without proper papers have asked to be deported soon, their lawyer has said.

Noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis asked that legal proceedings against the two reporters, Neil Bonner, 31, and Becky Prosser, 30, be sped up and conclude in a deportation decision.

'€œThey have been detained by the Immigration Office for too long. Three months,'€ Todung told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said the journalists had admitted to using tourist visas as their working visas had not yet been granted by the Indonesian embassy in London, despite having submitted their applications well in advance.

According to Todung, the journalists were arrested by the Indonesian Navy while making observations, and they had not yet begun filming.

'€œThe documentary has a good intention. It'€™s not propaganda. I think it'€™s just an immigration violation, better to just deport them,'€ he said, adding that he has prepared to defend his clients to be charged under the Immigration Law for working in the country while on tourist visas which carries a maximum punishment of five years in jail.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) has asked the government to free the journalists.

Earlier, the Batam Prosecutors Office'€™s general crime head Ali Akbar said that his prosecutors had been preparing dossiers against the journalists, who would be tried in Batam District Court as soon as the dossiers were completed.

On May 28, the Indonesian Navy patrol arrested the two journalists along with nine Indonesian nationals in Belakang Padang Island, Batam, as they were about to film a reenactment of an incident of piracy.

The nine locals have been identified as Zamira Lubis, 52; Andi Kusnanto, 36; Ahmadi, 36; Marsel Karel, 50; Indratno, 43; Apson Kakahue, 49; Samsul, 49; Diki, 28; and Lamusa, 36. The nine were released on bail on May 30.

The two have reportedly admitted that the documentary, which featured former pirates as actors, was to be aired on the National Geographic Channel.

On Tuesday, the Indonesian Navy'€™s Western Fleet commander, Rear Adm. Taufiqurrahman, told the Post that the Navy had rejected pressure from the British government to free the two journalists.

Taufiqurrahman said the documentary could tarnish the image of the Malacca Strait as a crime-prone area, saying that the reenactment of piracy in the film was inaccurate.

An agency focusing on piracy and armed robbery, the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP), said that 129 sea attacks were reported from January to September 2014, predominantly in Indonesia, the South China Sea, the Malacca Strait and the Singapore Strait.