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| Southeast Asia |
| Lawyer overseeing Australian's case quits |
| 2005-08-26 |
| MODEL Michelle Leslie's Indonesian lawyer resigned yesterday, saying he could not meet the family's "target" for her case. Mohammed Rifan emerged from a meeting with the 24-year-old Australian and a female family member to say they had parted ways. Asked if the family's objectives were achievable, Mr Rifan said: "It is difficult to answer but actually we resign because it is not possible we guarantee to get that target. "I am only talking about how to run the case by our system. "We must follow the Indonesian regulation, we must respect the Indonesian regulation, and we still must be follow our system." The "target" had been suggested to him by Ms Leslie herself and her Australian lawyer Ross Hill, Mr Rifan said. The family had wanted "very big things by our system" and "it is impossible, it's not our style", he said. Mr Rifan's sudden exit from the high-profile case came amid a day of turmoil and denials after her police statement was leaked to the press. Ms Leslie said in the signed statement she had been taking ecstasy for the past year, was addicted and had been seeking a doctor's treatment. The model - dubbed Miss Beautiful in the Balinese press - faces 15 years in jail after allegedly being caught with two ecstasy tablets in her bag. The Leslie family is understood to have been angered to learn the contents of her police statement, and had not agreed with Mr Rifan's strategy. Earlier, when he was still the retained lawyer, Mr Rifan claimed the leaked document must have been a fake. Mr Rifan did not deny Ms Leslie had told police she had taken ecstasy in the past, saying: "This is a part of the investigation by the police at this time." Pressed on this issue, he said he could not explain about the content of the police interrogation, saying it was not a matter for the press. Ms Leslie was continuing her routine of hiding her face from the press yesterday. Led from her jail cell to the police building, she had one sarong over her head and another around her waist, and a tight grip on a family member who refused to give her name. Her attire prompted taunts from Indonesian members of the press. One asked if she was now a sarong model and another asked if she liked her new catwalk, referring to the prison walk from her cell to the detective's office. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |