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SYDNEY ? A convicted people smuggler has been found among a boat-load of Sri Lankan asylum seekers holed up on a wooden vessel in Indonesia, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Monday.
The revelation came after Australian authorities said a new boat carrying suspected asylum seekers had been picked up heading towards Australia, the third such vessel detected in as many days.
The convicted smuggler, Abraham Lauhenaspessy, known as "Captain Bram", was arrested after being found on the boat picked up by Indonesian authorities last week as it carried 255 Tamil asylum seekers towards Australia, Smith said.
"Abraham ... has been taken into custody by Indonesian authorities," he told Australian public radio hours before traveling to Jakarta with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a visit expected to include talks on people smuggling.
"He is, of course, someone who has previously been convicted of people smuggling offences and well known to Australian and Indonesian authorities," he said.
Fairfax newspapers alleged that "Captain Bram" had brought more than 1,500 asylum seekers to Australia since he emerged as a key organizer of Indonesia's people-smuggling operations in 1999.
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan asylum seekers, who last week said they had launched a hunger strike after refusing to disembark their vessel moored in an Indonesian port, confirmed Captain Bram was on board.
The spokesman, known as Alex, claimed the vessel had been intercepted after Captain Bram had turned the boat back after failing to make a rendezvous with a smaller vessel that would have returned him to Indonesia.
He insisted on turning everyone back to avoid the risk of being sentenced to up to 20 years in jail as a people smuggler if he had been arrested by Australian authorities.
"The selfish move that he has made has cost 260 lives... a decision that he made... to save himself has ruined our families' lives as well. And it has destroyed a dream that people were searching for freedom," Alex told public radio.
