Aceh detainees complain words 'twisted'

The women are accused of misusing their tourist visas

Two Western women who have been arrested in Indonesia's restive Aceh province have refused to sign a police dossier on their case, their lawyer was reported as saying on Friday.

The police are intent on uncovering proof of our intended association with the separatists but there is none

Joy-Lee Sadler

British academic Lesley McCulloch and American nurse Joy-Lee Sadler also protested their innocence in a note smuggled out to a news agency.

Indonesian police say they want to see the women put on trial for misusing their tourist visas.

If convicted they could face up to five years in jail.

'Ill-treatment'

Ms McCulloch and Ms Sadler had complained on Thursday that, following their lengthy interrogation, their words have been twisted or answers have been fabricated.

"Both refused to sign the dossiers, complaining that some of the answers which police typed were different than the ones they gave," their lawyer Rufriadi told the Associated Press.

A police spokesman, Major Taufik Sugiono, told the agency the detained women were "entitled to protest, and we will correct their answers and return the dossiers for them to sign".

The women have already complained to consular officials that they have been beaten and deprived of sleep during their 9-day incarceration.

Police say they found photographs and video footage of the separatist rebel movement in the women's bags, as well as a laptop and documents.

'On holiday'

But in a note obtained by Reuters news agency from Ms Sadler on Friday, the women deny the allegations.

"Despite the fact that we were not in possession of separatist documents, information was released to the media by the police stating that the discovery of such documentation was the basis of our detention," the note said.

"The police are now intent on uncovering proof of our intended association with the separatists but there is none."

In another note, sent to a local newspaper, the women insisted they were in south Aceh for a holiday.

Relatives of Ms McCulloch, originally from Dunoon in Scotland, have said she had gone to Aceh to research a book on the conflict there, where rebels are agitating for an independent state.

The academic is a permanent resident of Australia and until June taught at the University of Tasmania, in Hobart.

She has written many articles on the conflict, including for BBC News Online, in which she has highlighted abuses allegedly committed by the security forces in the province.

Ms Sadler, from Iowa, was in Aceh to treat the sick and injured in refugee camps, according to her daughter.

Foreigners need special permission to carry out research in Indonesia and separate authorisation to travel to any of the country's conflict zones.