A young Indonesian man who served time in a West Australian adult prison for people smuggling despite being a child at the time has had his conviction overturned.
Ali Jasmin, also known as Ali Yasmin, was a crew member on a boat transporting 55 Afghani asylum seekers and was aged 14 in December 2010 when he was sentenced as an adult to five years in prison.
He was among dozens of Indonesian children prosecuted by Australian authorities between 2010 and 2012 after they were deemed adults using the now-discredited method of wrist X-rays.
In April 2012, Greens Senator Hanson-Young called for an inquiry into the case, saying a birth certificate showed Jasmin was 13 when first detained by Australian authorities for cooking on a boat.
At the time, then-prime minister Julia Gillard said she didn't want to see children in Australian jails and was aware claims had been made about a birth certificate but a court had determined that Jasmin was not a minor.
One month later, then-Attorney General Nicola Roxon ordered Jasmin's release from Albany Regional Prison and he was deported back to Indonesia.
Jasmin then sought to have his conviction quashed, which was allowed in the WA Court of Appeal on Thursday, with the full bench of judges unanimously agreeing he should be acquitted.
Justices Robert Mazza and Robert Mitchell said it was in the interest of justice to acquit Jasmin rather than order a new trial, as there was a real prospect he was sentenced under the wrong statutory framework.
They said it was "unsafe" that the District Court judge who dealt with Jasmin's case concluded he was 18.
"I am satisfied that a miscarriage of justice ... has occurred," they said.
"If the appellant was aged under 18 years when he allegedly committed the offence, the mandatory minimum penalty ... for an adult, did not apply to him, and he should have been sentenced by the Children's Court."
Jasmin played only a minor role in the people smuggling, they added.
