An Indonesian fisherman has been sentenced to five years in jail for people smuggling.
Zainudin Zainudin and two other Indonesian men set sail from southern Java for Christmas Island with 83 asylum seekers on board in May.
The court heard that he had agreed to steer the boat in exchange for $250.
Zaindudin was sentenced to five years in jail this morning in the District Court of South Australia.
Judge Gordon Barrett gave him a three year non-parole period.
His co-accused, Slamet Slamet, 19, yesterday was taken into custody by the Department of Immigration after being acquitted of aggravated people smuggling.
At trial, prosecutors had alleged the duo crewed an unseaworthy 15m wooden boat, with 83 passengers, from Indonesia into Australian waters in May last year. Naval officers said the boat was so overcrowded they could not board it.
The passengers, from Iran and Iraq, said they had paid $6000 each for passage.
Some spent the three-day trip lying on the deck to avoid being thrown overboard, while a man recovering from heart surgery had only a thin ledge on which to rest.
In his defence, Zainudin claimed a man named “Saifun” offered him $250 to “bring people to an island”.
Mr Slamet said he, too, was offered money by Saifun, but he believed that the trip would be short. “Saifun said, `We take tourists in this boat … to an island’ for `just one week, then you coming back’,” the fisherman said.
Mr Slamet said he did not want to remain in Australia.
“My mum is not here, I don’t have family here. I miss my mum,” he said.
The Advertiser understands arrangements will be made for Mr Slamet’s extradition once his identity has been confirmed with Indonesian authorities.
2012 News Limited