Two Indonesian fishermen have admitted to being crew members on a boat loaded with 80 asylum seekers bound for Australia.
Sarimin Abang, 49, and Nasrudin Ahmad, 29, pleaded guilty to new non-aggravated people-smuggling charges in the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday, following changes to sentencing laws made by the federal attorney-general in August.
While the offence now carries a maximum term of 10 years’ jail, it removes mandatory sentences for boat crew members, reflecting their low-level involvement and minimal profit in the people-smuggling trade.
Both men have been in custody since January 8, 2011, shortly after the Australian navy intercepted a wooden fishing boat in distress in waters off Ashmore Island.
Prosecutor Krista Breckweg told the court the boat’s occupants – including a pregnant woman – were seasick and dehydrated when a navy boat reached them about 60 nautical miles from land.
Their rickety 35m wooden boat would have sunk within four to six hours if officers hadn’t pumped out water that had begun seeping in, she said.
The crown is seeking convictions that would see Ahmad free to return home given time already served, with Abang to spend a further three months in custody for playing a more senior role in the operation.
Legal Aid lawyers for the accused told the court both men came from extreme poverty in remote Indonesian farming villages and had been approached separately while on fishing expeditions by men offering, in Abang’s case, up to 25 million rupiah (about $2300 AUD) to help crew a boat loaded with ‘cargo’ bound for Australia.
The court heard Abang, who was jailed for two years in 2000 for crewing another asylum seeker boat, primarily steered the vessel, while Ahmad, who has no prior convictions, was in charge of maintenance and rationing food.
Judge Liz Gaynor said the men were ‘small fish’ in the illegal people-smuggling business and conceded they were ‘vulnerable, poverty stricken’ individuals who’d been preyed upon by those higher up the chain.
She adjourned the plea hearing and is expected to sentence the men on Monday.
Two other men are expected to plead guilty to similar offences on Friday for crewing a separate vessel loaded with 90 asylum seekers bound for Australia.
In a separate case, Victorian County Court Judge Michael Rozenes on Friday ordered eight other alleged people smugglers to face plea hearings in coming weeks, after the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) rejected applications by lawyers to drop the charges.
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