Indonesia to deport Aussie journalist for violating visa rules

Indonesia is set to deport an Australian journalist for violating the country’s immigration law by illegally covering the planned execution of two compatriots convicted of drug smuggling in the Southeast Asian state.

According to Indonesian immigration authorities, Daily Mail Australia reporter Candace Sutton will be deported late Friday by a flight from Jakarta to Sydney after she was detained on Wednesday in the Cilacap district in the southern coast of Central Java Province.

The district lies close to Nusakambangan Island, where the convicted Australian drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are waiting for their execution.

Sutton was apparently caught interviewing a relative of one of the Australian convicts at a hotel.

Immigration department spokesman, Heriyanto, said Sutton had “failed to show a journalist visa” and violated immigration laws by working while on a tourist visa.

Jakarta requires foreign journalists to apply for a journalist visa at the Indonesian embassy or the representative office in their origin country before being permitted to report on Indonesia.

The Australian convicts were arrested in 2005 and sentenced to death a year later for trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of the Indonesian resort island of Bali into Australia.

The two are the only members of the dismantled Bali Nine drug-smuggling ring on death row. The remaining Bali Nine members were sentenced to life or 20 years in prison.

Jakarta and Canberra have been at loggerheads over the fate of the two prisoners, with Canberra warning of a severe diplomatic response, including a boycott on traveling to Indonesia if Jakarta proceeds with the executions.

More than 138 people are on death row in Indonesia mostly for drug crimes. Drug offenders face harsh punishments, including death penalty, in the country. About a third of the convicted people are foreigners.

HJM/MKA/HMV

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