Australian deported from Aceh

Fri, 23 Aug 2002 | Source: AP

BANDA ACEH: An Australian, arrested for taking photographs in Banda Aceh, was deported on Thursday after being interrogated for three days by the local immigration office.

Lawrence Lawson was placed aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight to Melbourne.

Lawson, 28, was detained on Monday after photographing a protest held by dozens of women in front of the police headquarters in the city.

Rufriadi, Lawson's lawyer, said his client was discovered to have violated immigration laws by carrying out journalist-like activities while on a tourist visa. Authorities confiscated all the photographs he had taken during his five-day stay in Aceh. --JP

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