People-smuggler jailed

An Indonesian people-smuggler has been jailed for two and a half years for arranging an ill-fated sea voyage to Australia that left at least nine asylum seekers dead.

Ali Cobra was arrested in May in a joint operation between Indonesian and Australian police.

The Kupang District Court yesterday found Kobra guilty of organising a breakout from an immigration detention centre in West Timor last January, before putting 18 escaped asylum seekers on a fishing boat bound for Australia.

The boat capsized.