Payne Haas’ dad arrested in Philippines on drugs charges, faces Indonesian death penalty

Payne Haas’ NRL club, the Brisbane Broncos, confirmed it was aware of the incident.

The club has offered support to their star forward, who will still play for the Broncos against Manly on the opening night of Magic Round in Brisbane on Friday.

The younger Haas has previously shown enormous resilience to overcome personal adversity throughout a career that has been plagued by family issues.

There is no suggestion anyone else in the family is involved in the allegations against Gregor Haas.

It was unclear how an extradition would proceed from here, if at all. At least one senior figure from the Indonesian National Police believed Australia’s “approval” was necessary.

Professor of international law at Australian National University Donald Rothwell, however, said Philippine-Indonesia extradition would be a bilateral process and Australia would not need to be involved.

Complicating matters, he said the Philippines was a signatory to an international agreement that prohibited extraditions if they were to lead to an execution.

Sulistyo said his agency expected “no problems” with having Haas extradited to Indonesia.

One possible option was for the Philippines to send Haas to Indonesia under an agreement that he would not be sentenced to death if convicted.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to an Australian arrested in the Philippines. It declined to provide further details.

Indonesian officials have told this masthead the Australian Federal Police were not involved in the arrest.

Haas’ capture follows the arrest of Australian accountant Troy Smith in Bali with an alleged 3.5 grams of methamphetamines.

Smith’s lawyers hope to have him spared what could be a lengthy jail sentence if he is convicted and sent to rehabilitation instead if convicted.