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A man who was involved in a people-smuggling operation that culminated in hundreds of deaths when an overloaded vessel sank on its way to Australia more than two decades ago has been sentenced to seven years behind bars.
Maythem Kamil Radhi is immediately eligible for parole after spending three years and one week in jail.
Radhi pleaded not guilty to facilitating the proposed entry of at least five non-citizens into Australia between July 1 and October 19, 2001.
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After less than five hours of deliberation a jury on Wednesday found the 46-year-old father-of-three guilty.
Over five days the Brisbane Supreme Court trial heard from six passengers who were among the hundreds of asylum seekers who boarded the boat, which came to be known as Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X (SIEV-X), in Indonesia.
The six, with 17 others, escaped before the SIEV-X sank in the Indian Ocean on October 19, 2001, while another 45 were rescued.
But the tragedy claimed the lives of hundreds of people, estimated to be more than 300 including significant numbers of children, Justice Lincoln Crowley said in sentencing Radhi.
He was not accused of being the kingpin behind the people-smuggling operation, but instead being part of a group led by Egyptian-born Abu Quassey.
In 2003 Quassey, also known as Moataz Attiya Mohamed Hassan, was found guilty in a Cairo court of manslaughter for organising the ill-fated voyage.
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He was sentenced to five years behind bars for homicide through negligence and another two for aiding illegal migration.
Iraqi-born Khaleed Shnayf Daoed was sentenced to nine years in jail after being convicted in the Brisbane Supreme Court in 2005 for his part in the fatal expedition.
Radhi helped facilitate the operation by doing things like collecting money, arranging buses, visiting places where passengers stayed before the journey and helping organise asylum seekers at the vessel's departure point on the beach, prosecutors argued during the trial.
The only logical explanation for his presence in the lead up to asylum seekers getting onto the boat is that he was a smuggler, prosecutor Chris Shanahan said.
"His involvement was consistent, sustained and was hands on."
Shanahan said the smugglers led by Quassey were motivated by money, selling places on boats to Australia for profit.
The passengers who testified during the trial spoke of paying up to $1000 each to board the boat.
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Defence barrister Mark McCarthy questioned whether anything Radhi did in Indonesia for the hundreds of asylum seekers that was done with the express intention of making their proposed entry to Australia easier.
There was an incredible level of determination by the asylum seekers to get on the boat, despite it being obviously unsafe, with the hope of reaching Australia.
"I suggest to you the things that he (Radhi) did – whichever of them you agree upon – made no difference at all."
McCarthy also questioned why Quassey – who was sending people out in extraordinarily dangerous circumstances – would tell Radhi more than needed.
"What of this evidence makes you think Maythem Radhi isn't also a dupe?"
Radhi was extradited to Australia in 2019, about eight years after an arrest warrant was issued by Brisbane Magistrates Court.
The process was delayed while his eligibility for extradition was argued in courts in New Zealand, where he had been living with his wife and children since 2009 after being registered with the United Nations as a refugee.
Radhi has been in custody since arriving in Australia, having been refused bail twice.
Source: 9News
