Man guilty of smuggling Sri Lankan migrants to Canada given four-year sentence

A Sri Lankan man found guilty of smuggling Tamil migrants to Canada won't serve any more time in prison, despite being handed a four-year sentence on Monday, the Globe  and Mail reported.

Kunarobinson Christhurajah, who has already spent seven years behind bars awaiting trial, smiled as he stood before a British Columbia Supreme Court judge.

He was convicted in May of being involved in the smuggling of 492 asylum seekers, who arrived on British Columbia's coast aboard the MV Sun Sea in August 2010.

His wife and six-year-old daughter, who was born in Canada, sat in the gallery near the prisoner's box where Christhurajah was seated alongside an interpreter.

"Mr. Christhurajah was himself an asylum seeker, as were all of the other passengers," Justice Catherine Wedge said during sentencing, adding they embarked on a "dangerous" journey aboard a dilapidated vessel that left Thailand six weeks earlier.

"The evidence does not establish he was a mastermind or leader on the voyage," she said.

Wedge cited two previous cases in which three Chinese men were sentenced to four years in prison for their part in bringing illegal migrants to the West Coast in 1999.

Unlike in that case, Wedge said Christhurajah and his family experienced the same conditions as the other passengers on the cargo ship that had one hold and an inadequate number of washrooms for hundreds of people.

"That's an important distinction in my view," she said of the 2001 sentences. "These Chinese nationals were not asylum seekers."

A mistrial was declared in Christhurajah's first trial in January when a jury failed to reach a verdict but acquitted three other men who had been accused of human smuggling. Christhurajah, who has been out on bail since February, was found guilty by another jury in May.

Wedge said the evidence showed Christhurajah was not out to make a profit but was one of the owners of the ship, was involved in arranging accommodation for some migrants in Thailand and also used a false name to conceal his identity.

He provided migrants with bus tickets to get to Thailand, where they boarded the MV Sun Sea, and was seen using a satellite phone on the ship, she said, adding that while the evidence suggests money changed hands, there's nothing to suggest Christhurajah received any of it.