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Australians get up to three years for illegal entry
The Merauke District Court on Thursday sentenced Australian pilot Henry Scott Bloxam to three years in prison and fined him Rp 50 million (US$4,545) for landing in Papua with four passengers with no flight clearance
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The Merauke District Court on Thursday sentenced Australian pilot Henry Scott Bloxam to three years in prison and fined him Rp 50 million (US$4,545) for landing in Papua with four passengers with no flight clearance.
Presiding judge Desbenneri Sinaga said Scott Bloxam had violated Articles 58 and 13 (2) of Law No. 15/1992 on aviation.
defendant is legally and convincingly guilty of violating Indonesian transportation law by illegally entering Indonesian territory," the judge read out his verdict.
Four other AustraliansScott Bloxam's wife and copilot Vera, Hubert Hofer, Karen Burke and Keith Rowald Mortimer - were sentenced to two years in prison and fined Rp 25 million each for violating Articles 53 and 6 of Law No. 9/1992 on immigration.
"I can't believe this," Vera Scott Bloxam said of the verdict.
Their twin-piston P-68 aircraft, registration code VH-PFP, was seized by the state.
The defendants' lawyer Efrem Fangohoy immediately filed for an appeal. He said the verdict "humiliated the state" because the panel of judges did not understand the international regulation on aviation.
"This is a very shameful decision," he said.
Efrem said Mopah Merauke Airport was an international airport and therefore a neutral area from which non-authorized personal, including illegal immigrants, could not enter Indonesia as they would face deportation.
"The *five* Australians had been told to leave the neutral area by Indonesian Air Force personnel. They were later taken to a hotel in Merauke for questioning. They left the airport because they were told to, but why they were sentenced for that?" he said.
Efrem said Scott Bloxam had been in Australian airspace on Sept. 12, 2008, when he contacted the Mopah air-traffic controller. The flight controller asked Scott for security clearance and flight approval documents, but Scott replied that he did not have either.
The controller then told Scott that he would be violating Indonesia law if he landed in the country, Efrem said. Scott Bloxam said he would turn back to Australia, but then was ordered by the official to proceed to Mopah airport.
"This is a set up. If the official knew that they were wrong, why did he tell them to proceed," Efrem said.
The lawyer said the air-traffic controller could be charged with violating Article 52(1) of the Criminal Code for allowing someone to break the law.
Efrem said both Henry and Vera Scott Bloxam were devastated because one of their children was in a coma in a hospital in Australia due to a swimming accident. clients are very sad. They have been sentenced to prison, their plane is confiscated and their child is hospitalized. They can't visit the child," he added.
The airplane, operated by Cape Air Transport (based in Cooktown, northern Australia), took off from Horn Island, Australia, and landed at Mopah Airport at about 11:28 a.m. local time (9:28 a.m. Jakarta time) on Sept. 12, 2008, without flight approval or security clearance.
The Australians believed they could obtain visas on arrival, and later told the police that their purpose of visit was sightseeing.
