Louis O'Carroll is a freelance journalist specialising in travel writing. He is 64 years old and partially disabled from injuries sustained in a road accident.
In a statement to the media, O'Carroll says that in December 1992, he decided to visit Indonesia. In New Zealand, he telephoned the Indonesian Embassy in Wellington and was told to apply for a two-month tourist visa which, the embassy said, "could easily be extended". During a stopover in Australia, he was given the same information from the embassy in Canberra.
However, when he went to renew the visa in Bali, "it was two days out of date because of a religious holiday. I was arrested by Indonesian immigration officials and my passport was confiscated.
"I have a British passport, and when I telephoned the British consul in Jakarta, he secured my release. The consul offered to lend me the air fare to Darwin, against an 'irrevocable undertaking' against my bank there."
However, after a week, the Foreign Office in London refused to sanction the loan. In the meantime, O'Carroll obtained his own money and went to the immigration office to collect his passport so that he could buy a ticket to Darwin.
"They telephoned (in my hearing) the Australian consul, and two hours later when I returned to my hotel, a letter had arrived by hand cancelling my Australian 10-year multiple-entry visa."
The Australian consul "came to see me and said, 'I cancelled your visa because you were destitute in Indonesia, and if you had returned to Australia you would have had to reply on public funds for support'. This totally incorrect information could only have come from the British consul.
"I tried to contact friends and people I know in the media in Australia, New Zealand and England, but it soon became obvious the Indonesian authorities were tampering with my mail and faxes. I eventually decided to return to New Zealand, but when I went to buy my ticket a large sum of money was extorted from me with threats of violence. I then went on a hunger strike for five weeks to protest against the action, in collusion, of the Indonesian, British and Australian authorities. I became very weak and ill, so abandoned my hunger strike."
A North American offered to arrange air passage for him to Hawaii, but O'Carroll was seized by Indonesian officials and thrown into jail. He was kept "in indescribably filthy conditions and solitary confinement for seven weeks. My requests for urgently needed medical attention and for access to my consul were ignored, and when I protested I was badly beaten up.
"After three weeks the Australian consul visited me. He expressed absolutely no sympathy for my, by now, acutely distressed condition. Indeed, he pressed me to sign a 'request' to be repatriated to England, a country where I now have virtually no connections. The Indonesians told me that I would stay in prison until I did sign. Extremely weak and ill, I signed.
"This ordeal, which lasted from early February until mid-November 1993, has caused me grave health problems, deprived me of personal freedom and, through my inability to pursue my job as a travel writer, caused me to lose a great deal of money. More seriously, the emotional trauma is likely to be with me for a considerable time."