Jury considers people smuggling case

ABC news
Last Update: Friday, December 19, 2003. 0:25am (AEDT)

A Perth jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a Palestinian born man accused of being a highly ranked organiser in the people smuggling trade.

The man has been on trial for the past seven weeks.

Keis Abd Rahim Asfoor was arrested in October two years ago, when he arrived in Perth onboard a flight from Indonesia.

He has been accused of organising 13 boatloads of asylum seekers that arrived at Ashmore Reef off the Western Australian coast between July 1999 and October 2001.

The jury has been told the passengers, mainly from Iran and Iraq, paid Asfoor to organise food and boats for them. They were also told he hired Indonesian crew members and paid their family members once the boats arrived at their destination.

Asfoor has denied the allegations against him.

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