McHunt
International Rep
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- Aug 25, 2018
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What happens in Bali, stays in Bali
– but fans can handle the truth
– but fans can handle the truth
Neil Breen
Sports reporter
November 16, 2019 — 8.16pm
Australians flock to Bali because it is a cheap holiday. But the cost of going there can be expensive. Just ask David Fifita. He forked out $30,000 in cash to get out of there after barely touching a nightclub bouncer as he rode past on a scooter.
David Fifita arriving back at Brisbane International Airport after paying $30,000 to secure his release after an incident in Bali.Credit:AAP
That's the price of doing business in Indonesia. You step out of line, your freedom's threatened. To help you with your decision-making, they'll leave you in a cell for three days. In a case like Fifita's, the pay-off for freedom would usually be about $10,000. Once they find out you are an NRL star, it's a lot more. In fact, after Fifita paid the $30,000 on Sunday, he was in the cells for a further eight hours as they tried to get more money off him after believing they may have sold themselves short the first time.
The Indonesian lawyer for NRL star David Fifita has called a press conference to clear up what he called 'smelly' suggestions made by Australian media. On Monday, Fifita's Bali lawyer Muhammad Rifan said no payment had been made to a third party to secure his client's freedom. After Channel Nine and the Herald reported on Tuesday night that freedom cost Fifita $30,000, Rifan angrily convened a press conference at his Bali office on Thursday.
David Fifita (centre) speaks after being released from a Balinese prison flanked by lawyer Muhammad Rifan and Broncos staffer Adam Walsh.Credit:Amilia Rosa
"Because David have the potential in the future, because he's a young boy, and because the case is not really hard, I met with all of my lawyers and partners and we said we want to save him," Rifan said. "Even below then our standard charge like that. I say again, it is below our standard charge. So when his friends said 'why so much?', I'm sorry, it's not expensive lawyer. It's not expensive.
"We are really, really expensive. But we give the best service for the client. We are really disappointed with some of the news in Australia, they say we got $50,000. I don't know how they got that statement, how they got that information. "Because for us … it is very secret in our office. "Even our lawyers, they don't need to know how much we charge our clients. "
"Then some of the journalists reported we got paid $30,000. They said they got that information from one of our lawyers. They paid our lawyer to get that information. I want to know which of our lawyers gave you that information. I will make sure they are fired. "It puts us in the difficult situation, and it looks like us as the lawyer does not have any right to get lawyers fees or to get paid. "The $50,000 is not correct. The $30,000, even though this is the sum, for us it's like charity to handle this case. Because it's really, really below our standard charge."
Rifan then produced a bank slip showing the $30,000 payment into his account. You can't make this stuff up.
For the record, neither Channel Nine nor the Herald paid a Balinese lawyer for any information. What Rifan doesn't understand is that rugby league leaks like a sieve. The amount was $30,000, it was reported by myself and Sam Phillips of the Herald, then Mr Rifan showed us the pay slip!
David Fifita's Bali lawyer Muhammad Rifan with a payslip showing the $30,000 payment.
The NRL integrity unit has now questioned Fifita and will hand down a punishment. What frustrates fans is there will be few, if any, details given after the investigation. The unit operates like some sort of secret society. Incidents that are played out in public, are sorted out behind closed doors – and the details of what happened, along with the reasoning behind suspension decisions, stay secret.
That is until commentary goes against the decision – at that point the integrity unit selectively leaks bits and pieces of "the truth" to get the spin going its way. It becomes tedious. Hopefully Broncos CEO Paul White and the Broncos board have learnt from the Matt Lodge experience. The club tried to bring Lodge back to rugby league at a bargain-basement price with no proper public mea culpa over his disgraceful New York behaviour. The Broncos' attitude was the club has made the decision, so that should be good enough for the public to cop. Nothing to see here.
All rubber-stamped by NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg, who also never spoke to the game's fans. Todd knows best. Well, the New York victims didn't cop it, and they alone brought the Broncos' world crashing down around them by speaking out and releasing the five-minute CCTV vision of the violent rampage. White says media reports of Fifita's Bali misadventure were not a true reflection of what happened and that "David has a different version of events". If his version is that he didn't do much wrong but it still cost him the bargain-basement price of $30,000 for freedom, then let's hear it.
Fans are adults. They can handle the truth.
What happens in Bali, stays in Bali – but fans can handle the truth
Apparently there is a different version of events of what happened in the David Fifita.incident in Bali. Well, let's hear it then.
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