Indonesian people smuggler jailed for 5 years

The Associated Press , Darwin | Tue, 09/02/2008 4:45 PM | National

An Indonesian man was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for arranging the passage of 353 asylum-seekers who reached an Australian island on an overcrowded boat.

Achmad Olong, 42, pleaded guilty in the Northern Territory Supreme Court in the northern city of Darwin last week to a charge of people smuggling in 1999.

He was arrested in Thailand in July last year while on a family vacation and was extradited to Australia six months later.

Olong admitted he bought a 130-foot (40 meter) wooden boat in late 1999, then charged mostly Iraqi asylum-seekers between US$1,700 and US$3,500 each to travel from Indonesia to Australia.

An Australian navy patrol intercepted the boat and its human cargo in November 1999 at a tiny Australian island in the Indian Ocean, 500 miles (800 kilometers) west of Darwin.

Defense lawyer Greg Smith told the court last week that Olong had smuggled the Iraqis because he pitied their suffering under former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Handing down the five-year sentence, with a minimum period of two years and six months without parole, Justice Stephen Southwood said Tuesday the boat was overcrowded and unhygienic.

Olong faced a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.(and)

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