A Cork man who was jailed in Australia for helping refugees to escape from a detention centre was released from prison yesterday and is expected to return to Ireland shortly.
Backpacker Jonathan Joseph O'Shea (22), from Kilmoney Heights, Carrigaline, was sentenced to two months for aiding and abetting the freeing of 35 people from the Woomera detention centre in South Australia.
Mr O'Shea, a graphic artist, is expected to return to Cork within the next few days although he has another month to go on his one-year working visa. He had been travelling around Australia in a camper van.
He was first arrested on July 3rd with eight other people in relation to the escapes from the controversial Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre on June 27th.
He appeared at Port Augusta Magistrates' Court on July 4th and again on July 25th, charged with aiding and abetting detainees to escape contrary to Section 11:2 of the Criminal Code Act, 1995.
Last week, Mr O'Shea was sentenced to two months in prison with one month suspended after pleading guilty. Passing sentence, the judge ordered that the second month be backdated to the start of his detention. Mr O'Shea has been released on a two-year good behaviour bond.
The case hit the headlines in the Australian media when two members of the group who escaped, Afghan brothers Alamdar and Muntazer Baktiari, aged 14 and 12, walked into the British consulate in Melbourne, more than 1,000 kilometres from the detention centre, three weeks after the escape. The two young escapers were refused asylum. The Australian authorities insisted that the boys were not genuine refugees and less than seven hours after they applied for asylum the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, rejected their claims.
Following the refusal, immigration officials took the boys back to the detention centre, where their mother and her three other children are also detained.