SYDNEY (Reuters) - A senior media adviser for Australian lawmaker and mining magnate Clive Palmer, whose party holds the balance of power in the upper house Senate, was charged on Friday over the kidnapping of a bank executive on an Indonesian island.
The charges allege that adviser Andrew Crook, former sports star Tony Smith and former senior detective Mick Featherstone lured the unidentified National Australia Bank executive to Singapore and then on to Indonesia's Batam Island, using the pretence of a high-paying job offer from Palmer.