Tauranga defence and human rights lawyer Craig Tuck is planning to defend a Wanganui beneficiary who is facing drug smuggling charges in Bali.

Antony Glen de Malmanche, 52, was arrested at the international airport in Denpassar earlier this month.

Tauranga defence lawyer Craig Tuck will be heading to Bali on December 28.

If de Malmanche is convicted, he could face death by firing squad.

Police say he travelled to Hong Kong to meet his internet girlfriend before going onto Bali, allegedly with 1.7kg of methamphetamine in his backpack.

Methamphetamine is in the most serious drug class in Indonesia and anyone convicted of trafficking the substance faces the death penalty.

The family have enlisted Craig's help and are currently raising money to fund their case.

De Malmanche's family claim he has been set up in a honey trap internet dating scam.

The case is still in its earlier stages but Craig has managed to convince police to delay interrogating de Malmanche until December 28.

'I have been dealing with lawyers in Bali who were actually Schepelle Corby's lawyers and a prominent death penalty defence specialist lawyer Ary Soenardi in Iraq who has instructed an agent to get down there,” Craig told SunLive this morning.

'There are quite a small group of death penalty lawyers in Bali and it seems that a number of them had turned up at the police station to assist with the case.

'The police originally agreed to delay interrogating him until I got there on December 28. Then within 12 hours they said they would start interrogating him.

'We have had him up at the hospital and we have had lawyers to him but I have not had the reports yet.

'Things are progressing and there is a lot of media interest in the case. It seems to be a high profile case.

'I don't know where this is going at the moment - we are at step one.”

Craig hopes to know more about what direction the case will be going in when he gets to Bali on December 28.