Man acquitted of people smuggling charges An Indonesian construction worker who helped sail a leaky fishing boat packed with 97 asylum seekers to Christmas Island has had his conviction for people smuggling quashed after a court found he had no idea where the boat was going. In a judgment that could have significant implications for future people smuggling cases, Ardi Zam Zamudin was on Wednesday acquitted of all charges and is now likely to be deported back to his home on a small Indonesian island. The father of four was convicted in the Downing Centre District Court of attempting to smuggle 97 people into Australia between November 29 and December 1, 2010 on the fishing vessel, SIEV 217. A passenger, Esmaeil Abgoon gave evidence in the case that the vessel was "neither strong nor safe," and that conditions for passengers were poor, with nowhere to sleep, no toilet facilities and no life jackets. The court heard that Mr Zamudin came from a small island north of Timor called Seram where he lived with his wife and children and worked as a builder's labourer for less than five Australian dollars a day. "His home has two rooms with no bathroom - he did not have a television, computer or radio or a mobile phone," his lawyer told the court. Prosecutors in the case said it was "implausible" that Ms Zamudin did not know "from the outset" that the boat was headed to Australia. They rejected the man's claim that he thought the boat was full of "tourists" because they did not speak Indonesian and that some appeared to be "sunbathing." But Zamudin said he was approached by two men to take people on a boat but "I did not know where to." When he asked where he was going the men told him "don't ask questions too much if you need the money." Having accepted the offer, he was taken by car at night to a secret beach where he boarded a small boat that took him to the fishing vessel. The three-judge panel of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal upheld Mr Zamudin's claims of ignorance about his destination. "In my view the Crown did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that [Mr Zamudin] was informed of the vessel's destination by those who engaged him," Justice John McFarlan said in his reasons for judgment. The applicant here is a poor man who lived far from the island of Java and other parts of Indonesia facing Australia. He did not have a television, a computer or radio that may have apprised him of the asylum seeker issues of which most Australians are very conscious. Moreover, the vessel upon which he was a member of the crew did not travel in the direction of mainland Australia but to an island. I am left with at least reasonable doubt that the applicant was told by those who engaged him that the destination of the vessel ... was Australia. The Crown prosecutor in the case immediately applied for an order that Mr Zamudin be placed into the custody of immigration officials so that he could be deported back to Indonesia.