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