Aus immigration takes NTT fishermen to Darwin for trial

Australian immigration officials have taken four Indonesian fishermen on board a plane to be tried in Darwin for allegedly catching fish and marine biota illegally in Australian waters.

The four fishermen, identified as Bogas, Cecep, Sulaiman and Fikar, departed from Kupang’s El Tari airport on Monday and transited in Ngurah Rai airport before taking an international flight to Darwin.

Antara news agency reported Monday that they were part of 12 fishermen from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) who were caught by the Australian navy in April and later placed under a court trial process in Darwin.

The trial was adjourned until mid-August or early September, Pending the resumption of court hearings, Australian immigration had decided to return them to NTT on humanitarian considerations.

Mustafa, one of the 12 NTT fishermen, said he and the other seven fishermen accused by the Australian authorities would make the trip back to Darwin early September.

Mustafa said the Australian authorities` charges had confused the fishermen because they were very sure at the time they were stopped by the Australian navy, they were still within Indonesia`s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

"We were still 12 miles from the border of the EEZ when the Australian patrol boat apprehended us," he said.

He said the fishermen had made their hearings based on a fishing zone map supposedly issued jointly by the Indonesian and Australian governments. But the Australian navy had apparently used a map in which almost all waters south of NTT were considered to belong to Australia.

Another of the 12 fishermen, Muslimin Arifin, said that he and his compatriots did not receive any help from the Indonesian government following the arrest in April.

“Our boats were burned without any compensation and the government did nothing although it knew what happened," Arifin said. (and)