Australia jails Indonesian people smugglers for role in deadly boat voyage
More than 100 asylum seekers drowned when vessel sank off Christmas Island in June 2012
Two Indonesian nationals were on Thursday sentenced to six and nine years in jail in Australia for people-smuggling, after a doomed venture in which more than 100 people drowned.
The men were not charged with organising the people-smuggling venture or with the deaths of any passengers who perished when the boat sank off Christmas Island in June 2012.
Boy Djara, thought to be aged 26 or 27, was effectively second in charge on the boat which was crammed with more than 200 asylum seekers mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan when it sank.
He was found guilty of six counts of people-smuggling in Perth District Court and sentenced to nine years in jail, with a non-parole period of six years, a court official confirmed.
His co-accused Justhen, 44, who was a deckhand on the ill-fated voyage and goes by one name, was found guilty of trying to assist illegal non-citizens into Australia and sentenced to six years’ jail.
He will be eligible for parole after four years.
Scores of asylum-seekers have drowned when their boats foundered en route to Australia in recent years, most of them having paid people-smugglers to bring them on wooden vessels from Indonesia.