Australia deports RI fishermen

Australia deports RI fishermen

PERTH, Australia: An Indonesian fisherman jailed over his role
in an infamous people-smuggling operation has been deported from
Australia after his release from prison here, officials said
Tuesday.

Norbames Nurdin, 32, was flown to Indonesia after serving 18
months of a four-year sentence for smuggling to Australia 433
asylum seekers who were rescued from their sinking wooden ferry
off Indonesia by the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa in August 2001.

The Tampa became the focus of an international incident after
its captain, Arne Rinnen, was refused permission to land in
Australia and the asylum seekers were sent to Pacific island
holding camps as part of what became Australia's so-called
Pacific solution.

Nurdin's lawyer Hylton Quail said the West Australian Court of
Criminal Appeal was still considering an appeal for the
conviction to be overturned.

The fishing vessel's crew -- Nurdin, skipper Bastian Disun,
33, Aldo Benjamin, 22, and Aksal Junus, 18 -- were tried in
September 2002 for smuggling people aboard the unseaworthy
Indonesian boat MK Palapa 1.

Junus and Benjamin were acquitted after arguing they did not
know they were bound for Australia, and had been recruited by
people smugglers for only a one-day sailing job.

Disun, who received a seven-year jail term with a non-parole
term of three years, remains in jail and is likely to be deported
in 18 months after the prosecution lost an appeal last month for
a longer sentence. --AFP