Arrested Ecstasy model linked to minister's son

Australian model Michelle Leslie was reportedly with the son of a senior Indonesian minister when she was arrested for possession of two Ecstasy tablets in Bali.

The link between Leslie and the highest levels of the Indonesian Government was reported in Bali newspapers at the weekend.

The DenPost said that when the 24-year-old model was arrested she was in a Toyota Kijang car bearing the logo of a luxury Bali resort travelling with the son of a senior Government official with a financial interest in that resort.

Australian newspapers said the official was Aburizal Bakrie, the Economics Minister, a wealthy businessman and one of the country's most influential politicians.

Mr Bakrie owns PT Bakrie & Brothers, a company that caused a stir when it built the Bali Nirwana Resort in Tabanan in the 1990s because it was close to a Hindu shrine, the Sunday Age and the Sun-Herald report.

Leslie was arrested and jailed in August when Bali police found two tablets of Ecstasy in her handbag during a sweep at a rave party in the hills near Kuta.

She said the pills belonged to a friend.

Yesterday, Bali police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Antonius Reniban would not identify who Leslie was with, saying simply that she was the only one found with drugs.

"There is no link whatsoever with these people and Michelle Leslie's case.

"No matter whose son or daughter they were, her friends were not arrested because we didn't find any preliminary evidence on them."

In court last week, two officers who arrested her gave contradictory testimony, including claiming they could not recall who was with Leslie.

One explained his poor memory by telling the court: "We searched a lot of beautiful girls that night."

Leslie's trial for possession, for which she faces up to 15 years in prison, resumes in Denpasar District Court on Friday.

- AAP