People-smuggler jailed for 14 years in Australia

[MrVan]

SYDNEY (AFP) – An Iranian-born man was jailed for 14 years on Monday for organising at least four people-smuggling boats from Indonesia to Australia, including an ill-fated vessel which crashed, killing 50 people.

Ali Khorram Heydarkhani, 41, was ordered to serve nine-and-a-half years without parole after pleading guilty to four counts of people-smuggling in the Perth District Court last month.

The journeys, made between June 2010 and January 2011, included a doomed vessel that disintegrated in a violent storm off Australia's Christmas Island, a remote Indian Ocean territory, in December 2010 killing 50 asylum seekers.

Three Indonesians who were crewing the smuggling ship were jailed for at least three years last month.

Judge Stephen Scott sentenced Heydarkhani to a maximum of 14 years for his role, which involved liaising with potential passengers and arranging purchase of the unseaworthy vessels, some of which were rotting and had no lifejackets.

"That is a very high sentence in the great scheme of things, far higher than anybody has seen before," Heydarkhani's lawyer Ian Macfarlane told reporters outside the court.

"Let that be a clear message to anybody who wants to participate in people-smuggling bringing people into Australia illegally."

The District Court heard that Heydarkhani, who was captured in Indonesia and extradited to Australia in January 2011, lied to asylum seekers about safety and conditions, promising them modern and fast ships with their own rooms and food.

Scott said he had even gone on to organise another voyage just days after the horrific Christmas Island accident, showing a lack of remorse for the scores of deaths on the rickety vessel.

Prosecutors described Heydarkhani as relatively senior in and central to an Indonesia-based people-smuggling syndicate, which charged dozens of asylum seekers hundreds of thousands of dollars to travel to Australia.

The gang had bribed police and government officials to allow their boats free passage, and Heydarkhani's wrong was said to be compounded by the fact that he was himself a refugee granted Australian citizenship in 2004.

Macfarlane told the court that his client had been motivated by a desire to help others, but Scott said the people-smuggler had been in it for the money.

Though they arrive in relatively small numbers by global standards, boatpeople are a controversial issue in Australia, dominating national elections in 2010.

More than 12,000 have arrived so far in 2012.

Vanguard Nigeria

[Nifemi Donald]

he got what he deserved.