Indonesia to prosecute boat disaster smuggler
Indonesia is to prosecute an Egyptian accused of putting hundreds of asylum seekers on a boat that sank on a voyage to Australia last month, killing more than 370 people.
Justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said authorities had not decided what charges would be filed against the man, Abu Quassey, who has been identified by survivors as a people smuggler.
‘‘Our criminal code does not specifically regulate people smuggling,’’ he said, adding that Indonesian judges could extend the interpretation of the penal code to cover this case.
Police arrested Quassey and one other man last week.
Australian authorities have accused Quassey of being responsible for much of the people trafficking from the Middle East and South Asia, through Malaysia and Indonesia, to Australia.
Australia has long urged Jakarta to crack down on asylum seekers passing through its territory.
Thousands of illegal migrants are scattered throughout Indonesia.
Some have applied to the United Nations for refugee status in third countries. Many, however, pay people smugglers up to dlrs 4,000 (£2,500) to reach Australia illegally on unseaworthy boats that often sink or are turned back.
The issue has worsened already-shaky relations between Jakarta and Canberra. Australian prime minister John Howard has made controlling the flow of refugees the central plank in his campaign for a general election on Saturday.
Meanwhile Indonesian police chief Gen Suroyo Bimantoro said today he was ‘‘re-evaluating’’ a 1995 accord with the Australian force to combat people smuggling.
He said the agreement needed renegotiating in line with the two countries’ national interests.
