Australia drops people-smuggling charge against Lankan

22 April 2016 12:24 pm

A people-smuggling charge has been dropped against a Sri Lankan man accused of attempting to assist a fellow countryman to travel from Indonesia to Australia by boat, the Australian reported on Thursday.

Jasothiran Shellakandu, 35, had appeared in the Adelaide Magistrate’s Court on Thursday where commonwealth prosecutors tendered no evidence on a charge of taking part in bringing a non-citizen to Australia between 2009 and 2013.

Shellakandu had been arrested in October last year and an earlier court appearance was told he was living in Adelaide on a humanitarian visa and feared being persecuted as a Tamil Tiger if he returned to Sri Lanka.