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Claims of police link to people smuggling
Karlis Salna, AAP South-East Asia Correspondent, AAP Updated June 25, 2013, 11:25 am
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Smuggler admits role fatal sinking
Video has emerged of an Indonesian people smuggler admitting his role in a fatal boat sinking last June.
There are fresh allegations of Indonesian police involvement in people-smuggling operations including a failed venture in which a vessel sank last year on the way to Christmas Island.
The allegations have been made after a man, identified as a former police officer and known by the name Freddy Ambon, was recorded talking about organising passage for asylum seekers bound for Australia.
In the video, obtained by the ABC, the alleged smuggler claims to have the support and protection of serving police officers.
He also talks about arranging a vessel which sank in June last year as it made its way to Christmas Island, resulting in the deaths of 96 people.
The video also shows him admitting to being an operative for a syndicate headed by a Pakistani smuggler Javed Mehmud Bhat, alias Billu, who has since been arrested.
"He's the boss, he's the owner, and I was the one who ran the business. Without me he could do nothing," Freddy says in the video.
The comments in the video appear to confirm that people smugglers often use a marina in Jakarta popular with tourists to begin shipping their human cargo, and do so without fear of being caught by police.
"It's guarded by police, my police, my men," Freddy says.
The asylum seekers are then transported to larger vessels before making the perilous crossing to Christmas Island.
