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wo British journalists who allegedly committed immigration violations while filming a documentary in Batam, Riau Islands, earlier this year are expected to go on trial soon after the Batam Prosecutors'€™ Office confirmed on Thursday that it had received the complete dossiers from immigration investigators.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Thursday, Batam Prosecutor'€™s Office'€™s general crime head Ali Akbar said Batam Immigration Office'€™s investigators had handed over to his office on Wednesday the completed dossiers, along with the two suspects and evidence in the case.

Ali said his office would register the case with the Batam District Court later this month. '€œWe have the authority to detain [the suspects] for the next 20 days. We are hoping their trial will commence soon after we submit their dossiers to the Batam District Court,'€ he said.

On May 28, a Navy patrol arrested the two journalists, identified as Neil Bonner, 31, and Becky Prosser, 30, along with nine Indonesian nationals on Belakang Padang Island, Batam, as they were about to film a reenactment of an incident of piracy.

The nine were released on bail on May 30.

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

Ali said the two people had not been working as journalists when they were arrested, as they were making a documentary for London-based production company Wall to Wall. '€œThe essence, however, is not whether they were working here as journalists but the absence of proper work permits,'€ he said.

According to its website, Wall to Wall'€™s productions include, among other programs, singing competition The Voice UK, award-winning documentary Man on Wire and BBC drama New Tricks.

Bonner and Prosser, according to Ali, will be charged under Article 122 paragraph A of the 2011 Immigration Law, which carries a maximum punishment of five years'€™ imprisonment and a fine of Rp 500 million (US$35,260). They were currently being detained under his office'€™s supervision at the Barelang detention center, Ali said.

Along with the dossiers, prosecutors have also received items of evidence, including a video camera, memory cards and a cleaver, from immigration investigators.

Prominent lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, who represents Bonner and Prosser, recently urged investigators to speed up their investigation as the two journalists had been detained for a long time.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia Pacific has confirmed that the two journalists are members of the UK-based National Union of Journalists.