Lawyer says U.S. nurse to be freed

Lawyer says U.S. nurse to be freed

BANDA ACEH: An American nurse jailed for visa violations will be released on Friday after being detained for four months, one of her lawyers said.

Joy Lee Sadler, 57, from Iowa, will be freed on Friday "because her jail term has been served", lawyer Rufriadi Ramli told AFP.

Sadler, who is ill with HIV-related conditions, ended on Monday weeks of hunger strike to protest the slow legal process against her and her companion, British academic Lesly McCullogh.

Ramli, who is also coordinator of the Banda Aceh chapter of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute, said his client would most likely fly to Kuala Lumpur upon her release.

The retired nurse, who has told reporters she is terminally ill with an HIV-related condition, was sentenced by a court in Aceh on Dec. 30 to four months in prison for violating her visa. McCulloch, was jailed for five months for the same offense.

The pair were arrested on Sept. 11 last year after visiting a separatist rebel camp. The time they spent in detention was subtracted from their sentences. --AFP