People-smuggler gets 12 years

AUSTRALIA: A Palestinian man labeled Australia's number one people smuggler was jailed for 12 years last week by a Perth judge, the Australian Embassy in Jakarta said in a statement quoting AAP, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post.

Keis Abd Rahim Asfoor was convicted late last year of being the kingpin of a people-smuggling racket that brought in as many as 1,700 illegal immigrants.

Found guilty of 12 charges by a Perth jury, judge Shauna Deane then sentenced Asfoor to 12 years in jail with a non-parole period of eight years.

The Western Australia district court heard that Asfoor was the main facilitator who brought in 12 boatloads of Iraqi asylum seekers to Australia between March 1999 and September 2001.

The six-week trial, which took more than two years to reach a jury, heard from almost 50 asylum seekers who said they had reached Australia in one of Asfoor's boats.

Asfoor was arrested at Perth International Airport in October 2001 when he tried to enter the country on a false Turkish passport under the alias Imam Dogan. -- JP