Jakarta: The Australian government says it will not be represented before a Jakarta court hearing a $103 million class action on behalf of 115 youths incarcerated in Australia for alleged people smuggling.
Indonesian children were jailed alongside hardened adult criminals in Australian jails after the Australian Federal Police used a now completely discredited method of taking wrist X-rays to determine their age.
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Ali Yasmin was jailed for 689 days - 386 of them in adult detention while he was a minor - on the basis of a wrist X-ray that put his age at about 19.
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Indonesian youth was jailed in adult Australian prison
Ali Yasmin was jailed for 689 days - 386 of them in adult detention while he was a minor - on the basis of a wrist X-ray that put his age at about 19.
"Australia has requested the court dismiss the proceedings," a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Fairfax Media.
He said the Australian government had conveyed its position in writing to the Central Jakarta District Court that as a sovereign state, its agencies were not subject to the jurisdiction of the court.
"The Australian Government will not be represented at the proceedings."
The lawyer representing the Indonesian juveniles, Lisa Hiariej, said the case - on behalf of 31 alleged people smugglers who were jailed while juveniles and 84 who were put in immigration detention - was being brought to an Indonesian court because it was a human rights case.
"The Australian government has put Indonesian minors into Australian adult jail. And in such case[s] state immunity and jurisdiction do not apply," Ms Hiariej said. "Besides, they are poor children - there is no way they can go to Australia to bring up their case."
The plaintiffs are suing the Immigration Department, the Australian Federal Police, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney-General's Department.
Ms Hiariej said she would be given a copy of the letter from the Australian government in court on May 30 and would ask for a month to respond.
The action comes as Ali Jasmin, who was arrested in 2009 while working as a cook on a people-smuggling boat when he was just 13, is appealing to have his conviction overturned by the Western Australian Criminal Court of Appeal.
A decision in that case is expected within weeks, which could pave the way for others who were incarcerated while still minors to take legal action in the Australian judicial system.
Mr Jasmin, also known as Ali Yasmin, was jailed for 689 days - 386 of them in adult detention - on the basis of a wrist X-ray that put his age at about 19.
This was despite the fact that the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had a legalised copy of his birth certificate that stated he was still a child. The Immigration Department had also interviewed Mr Jasmin and formed the view he was about 14.
The policy at the time was to not to charge anyone with people smuggling who wasn't established to be 19 and to instead return them home.
A 2012 Australian Human Rights Commission Inquiry found the Australian Federal Police were aware of material that called into question reliance on wrist X-ray analysis but continued to use the procedure as a means of age assessment.
It is a method that has now been discontinued.
"From the outside appearance I was a kid," Mr Jasmin told Fairfax Media. "They said I was an adult based on an X-ray test. Just from that. I rejected the result many times. I said, those machines of yours, they are not my mother. She gave birth to me, so it's her who knows my real age, not the machine.
"My family submitted a birth certificate via the consulate and an affidavit from my school principal, from the village head. None was accepted."
Mr Jasmin said he was sexually assaulted while in a maximum security WA jail. He said the man invited him to his room and then asked Mr Jasmin to massage him. "He pushed me to the bed. His hands were all over me, after I reached my limit, I got angry, stood up, broke down the door and ran outside. I was scared, I was traumatised after that."
Mr Jasmin, who was released in 2012, said he had never received an apology from the Australian government. "Nothing. Not an apology for jailing me for two years, not directly, not via anyone else. I was upset, angry, not with anyone in particular but with the system. I am glad the X-rays are no longer used. No one else has to suffer the way I did."
Mr Jasmin is not one of the plaintiffs in the class action before the Central Jakarta District Court.
In 2011 at least 70 Indonesian juveniles were estimated to be in Australian adult jails.
Colin Singer, the chairman of NGO Indonesia International Initiatives (TIGA-I), campaigned tirelessly to secure the convicted juveniles' release from Australian jails.
He said he still cannot understand why one 13-year-old ended up in an adult prison, let alone more than 70.
"I used to believe we had a justice system that was transparent and fair and you could sleep at night because there were people looking after people's interests. Not any more," he said.
"There was no fair go. It was an embarrassment to Australia. Indonesia has never put an Australian kid in an adult prison but we think the Indonesian judicial [system] is garbage."
Mr Singer said he wanted four things: "I want the kids to have a future. I want them to be assisted to get over the psychological and physical trauma they suffered. I want them to get an education they were deprived of and I want them to get compensation to allow them to get a start in life."
With Karuni Rompies