RI rejects people-smuggling charge

PERTH, Australia: An Indonesian national pleaded innocent to charges of people smuggling Friday, claiming he was on a boat headed for Australia because he was a Christian fleeing religious strife at home.

Jacky Lerebulan, 19, is one of three Indonesians who appeared in a West Australian District court on charges of attempting to smuggle 219 mainly Iraqi asylum seekers to Australia in October last year.

Lerebulan and his co-defendants, Geri Bebri Iraratu, 19, and Ganjang, 33, who like many Indonesians use only one name, have all denied they were crew members on the boat which was intercepted by the Australian navy.

Under Australian law, people smuggling carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Lerebulan said he was fleeing violence between Christians and Muslims in Ambon, the capital of the Maluku province.

Eighty five percent of Indonesia's 215 million people are Muslims, but the population of the Maluku Islands, which have been wracked by religious violence since 1999, is evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. At least 5,000 people have died in the fighting. -- AFP