An Iranian-born Australian citizen has been sentenced to 14 years' jail for organising asylum-seeker boats, including one that was wrecked at Christmas Island, killing 50 people.
Ali Khorram Heydarkhani, 41, pleaded guilty in the Perth District Court on Monday to arranging for five boats to travel from Indonesia to Australia between June 2010 and January last year.
The court was told the final trip was organised even though Heydarkhani knew that men, women and children had been killed when one of his other boats hit rocks at Christmas Island, the ABC reports.
The court was told all of the boats were in poor condition.
Judge Stephen Scott said Heydarkhani had shown an uncaring and reckless attitude to the safety and life of other human beings.
The judge said the people smuggler's primary motivation was for financial reward.
Heydarkhani is the first person to be convicted under new laws which take into account whether his actions were reckless as to whether people might die or suffer serious injury.
He was arrested in Indonesia in January last year and extradited to Perth to face trial.
He had originally pleaded not guilty to people smuggling charges but after negotiations he changed his plea to guilty for four out of the 12 charges on the day his trial was due to start.
