RI rejects people-smuggling charge

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