Asylum-seeker testifies against police

Asylum-seeker testifies against police

AUSTRALIA: Indonesian police helped people smugglers who led more
than 400 mostly Afghan asylum-seekers on an ill-fated trip to
Australia last year, a court here heard on Wednesday.

One of the asylum-seekers, Mohammed Hashim Hussaini, 36, told
the court that police and other security forces in Jakarta
appeared to be accomplices with the dozens of people smugglers
involved in the incident.

Hussaini was testifying in the trial of four Indonesians
accused of attempting to smuggle 434 asylum-seekers into
Australia between Aug. 23 and 26 last year in the so-called Tampa
affair.

The packed fishing boat used to smuggle the asylum-seekers
broke down at sea and the passengers and four Indonesian crewmen
were picked up by a Norwegian freighter, the Tampa. --AFP