Abraham Lauhenapessy, a 49-year-old Indonesian also known as Captain Bram, was arrested last October in Indonesia after the Indonesian navy intercepted his 90-foot wooden boat carrying 250 Sri Lankan would-be asylum seekers.

He was discovered hiding among the asylum-seekers on the Jaya Lestari 5, which remains docked in Merak on West Java. The Sri Lankans are also being held on West Java.

The Indonesian navy acted after a personal appeal from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Lauhenapessy would have faced a 20-year jail sentence had he been arrested in Australian waters but a court in Indonesia is expected to hand down a sentence that includes a fine of $3,500 and suspended one-year sentence because there is no Indonesian law against people smuggling, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported.

Lauhenapessy is charged with employing a crew without the correct paperwork and could walk free after paying his fine this week, the report said.

The chief prosecutor, Joko Subagyo, said the 20 months Lauhenapessy spent in jail on immigration charges as the result of a previous smuggling conviction wasn't brought up in court.

Lauhenapessy had told investigators he was only the front man for an associate in Malaysia and that he rescued the 250 Sri Lankan asylum seekers when he came across them by chance at sea.

All this wasn't brought up in court because it was deemed irrelevant to the charge of not having the correct paperwork, Subagyo is reported to have said.

Lauhenapessy is also wanted in Canada for questioning over another asylum-seeker incident around the same time as the Australia-Indonesia affair.

Canadian coast guard officials boarded the M.V. Ocean Lady off Vancouver Island and found 76 Sri Lankan, mostly Tamils, in the hold. Each reportedly paid $45,000 to Lauhenapessy to be taken to Canada, a report in the Vancouver Province newspaper said at the time.

Some of the Tamils are said to have wished they had paid Lauhenapessy $15,000 for going to Australia instead because it would have been so much cheaper.

Lauhenapessy's likely relatively light sentence in Indonesia could be the last lenient one because the country's Parliament is to start discussing a long-awaited anti-people trafficking law next month.

The change would be welcome in Australia where stiffer sentences are the norm, the ABC report said.

Lauhenapessy's luck has run out from time to time. He is alleged to have strong links to a criminal network operating around Jakarta's main port and was sentenced to two years in jail and fined $3,000 in December 2007.

He was found guilty of harboring and providing a livelihood to illegal immigrants in Indonesia. The charges related to the arrival of 83 Sri Lankan asylum seekers in international waters off Australia in early 2007.

He was had just finished serving that sentence when he was caught on board the Jaya Lestari 5 in October.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News