Accused Kiwi drug smuggler interrogated by Bali police without lawyer

New Zealand's Anthony Glen de Malmanche escorted by Indonesian custom officers to a press conference in Bali, Indonesia. Photo / AP

The lawyer for a Kiwi man facing the death penalty in Bali for alleged drug smuggling says police interrogated his client without him present.

Antony Glen de Malmanche, 52, from Wanganui, was arrested at the international airport in Denpasar on December 1 after 1.7kg of methamphetamine was found in his backpack.

Human Rights lawyer Craig Tuck has taken on the case at the request of de Malmanche's family.

He understood his client wouldn't be spoken to by police until he was in the country on December 28, but found out the interrogation went ahead without him yesterday.

"I want to keep a control on the process and found out exactly what is going on," he told TVNZ's Breakfast programme.

"Cases can be won or lost at the police station, it's a critical step in the process to have control of."

Mr Tuck has been instructing a team of lawyers in Indonesia including lawyers who previously represented Schapelle Corby and liaised with prominent death penalty defence specialist lawyer Ary Soenardi in Iraq.

He said several lawyers have been "staking out" the police station where de Malmanche has been kept.

"At this stage it's really just positioning the correct legal team around him and knowing that we're in for the long haul."

Mr Tuck said the language barriers and different type of legal system were some of the many difficulties would be facing at trial.

De Malmanche's family were facing a hefty fee to pay for the legal team in Indonesia, he said.

The lawyers in Bali had been making sure de Malmanche's health was good and he was getting everything he needed.

De Malmanche had told media in Bali that he had been set up.

He said he was going to Bali to marry a woman he had met on an online dating website.

He was travelling in to Bali from Hong Kong when a customs officer stopped him.

De Malmanche family spokesman James Bellamy said the family appreciated the support of the New Zealand public and ask that any donations be made to their Givealittle campaign: