Imprisoned Kiwi begs Rudd for help

Aussie Home Loans boss John Symond, who was allegedly defrauded by Robert McNeice, currently detained in Jakarta. Photo / Getty Images

A New Zealander who has spent 18 months in a squalid Jakarta jail without trial has pleaded for help from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Robert James McNeice, a 44-year-old dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand, was arrested in Indonesia in August 2008 at Australia's request.

The former Sydney watch salesman is wanted in Australia for allegedly defrauding Aussie Home Loans boss John Symond and his nephew James out of A$270,000 in 2003.

He lived the high life in Sydney on the borrowed money for a while, then left town for Indonesia in 2005.

There, the New Zealander ran a coffee business in Banda Aceh. He was also known as Lobster Rob and used the name Robert James in running a lobster business.

At the time of his arrest in 2008, Indonesian authorities told McNeice he would have to wait about three months for extradition.

But he's now spent more than 18 months - about 540 days - in a cramped, rat-infested police lock-up in Jakarta's south.

He sleeps on a hard tile floor, shares a single toilet with up to 80 other men and has suffered dengue fever, malaria and other serious health complaints during his incarceration.

An Indonesian court declared him eligible for extradition seven months ago.

But he has no idea how much longer he will have to wait before Indonesia issues final approval and he is finally sent home to face charges.

He has formally requested assistance from the Australian government on two occasions but says he has received no response.

Desperate, Mr McNeice last week pleaded with Mr Rudd to intervene.

"I've been extremely patient," McNeice wrote in a letter to the prime minister, obtained by AAP.

"Enough is enough.

"Is it fair I sit here in the hardship of an Indonesian jail for one-and-a-half years without trial?"

McNeice says Australia has left him at the mercy of a "weak, broken and corrupt" system that has trampled on his human rights.

He wants Australia to abandon its extradition application and let him walk free.

"I'm only interested in my immediate liberty," he told Mr Rudd.

"I plead with you to take a simple and humane approach.

"I know that you are the ONLY one whom can deal with this matter in such a simple way.

"I'm not prepared to sit here any longer.

"No one can give me back the time that the system has taken from my life."

Indonesian human rights groups are outraged McNeice has spent so long in detention without charge or trial and believe Australia's extradition application should have failed under Indonesian law.

McNeice says lawyers have advised him that even if he were found guilty in Australia it is unlikely he would be sentenced to no more than a year in prison - less time than he has already served.

- AAP