Kupang (ANTARA News) - Australian immigration officials on Monday took four local fishermen to their country to be further tried in a court in Darwin on charges of having entered Australian waters illegally. The four fishermen were put on a Merpati Nusantara Airlines (MNA) plane from Kupang`s El Tari airport to Ngurah Rai airport in Denpasar, Bali, for further transportation to Darwin by an international flight. Identified as Bogas, Cecep, Sulaiman and Fikar, the four were part of 12 East Nusatenggara (NTT) fishermen who were repatriated by Astralian immigration in mid-July after going through a court trial procss in Darwin for catching fish and marine biota illegally in Australian waters. The court trials were adjourned until mid-August or early September, and pending the resumption of the hearings, Australian immigration had decided to return them to NTT on humanitarian considerations. Meanwhile, Haji Mustafa, one of the 12 NTT fishermen, said he and the other seven fishermen accused by the Australian authorities would make the trip back to Darwin early September. The 12 fishermen were caught by the Australian navy in April 2008 for allegedly entering Australian waters illegally to catch fish and other marine biota. But Muslimin Arifin (37), another of the 12 fishermen, said they were intercepted by an Australian navy patrol when they were still in Indonesian waters and then herded into Australian waters by the Australian patrol baat. "We were arbitrarily arrested by Australia but we did not receive any help from the Indonesian government. Our boats were burned without any compensation and the government did nothing although it knew what happened," he said. Haji Mustafa said the Australian authorities` charges had confused the fishermen because they were very sure at the time they were stopped by the Australian navy, they were still within Indonesia`s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). "We were still 12 miles from the border of the EEZ when the Australian patrol boat apprehended us," he said. He said the fishermen had made their hearings based on a fishing zone map supposedly issued jointly by the Indonesian and Australian governments. But the Australian navy had apparently used a map in which almost all waters south of NTT were considered to belong to Australia. (*)

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