Convictions stand, but sentences reduced in human smuggling case appeal

The Grand Court on Monday cut the sentences of a husband and wife convicted of human smuggling.

But the court ruled the conviction, as well as two others for illegal entry to Cayman and failure to complete a disembarkation form as soon as their sailing yacht arrived, should not be quashed.

Justice Cheryll Richards reduced the 52-year-old English man’s sentence for people smuggling from 48 to 33 months and his wife’s sentence from 40 to 25 months.

She agreed with counsel for the applicants that their Summary Court sentence was “manifestly excessive” because the magistrate had not taken into account that a five-year sentence for a similar offence, used as a yardstick, had been cut to three-and-half years.

But Richards said Summary Court had been correct to convict the couple, who smuggled two Ethiopian refugees into Cayman Brac on board their boat.

She highlighted that when the pair eventually filled in immigration forms, they failed to declare their two passengers, who they had agreed to take to Honduras in return for payments of about US$5,000 each.

Richards added, “It was plain on the evidence it was failure to declare the two passengers.”

She said the decision to lie must have been “a pre-arranged plan decided upon before arrival” for financial gain.

Richards added that the two Ethiopians, Kedir Osama Musa and Tilahum Assafa Bruke, were locked in the cabin and warned to say they were cleaners if found while the captain and his wife went ashore on Cayman Brac.

She said, “Both applicants facilitated the movement of Mr. Musa and Mr. Bruke into the islands.”

Richards added, “From the evidence, both applicants sought to prevent the officers from going on board the boat.”

The pair, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also had their sentences for illegal landing cut.

The man’s was reduced from 18 months to 12 months and woman’s from 12 months to six months.

But Richards said the convictions and sentences should stand for failure to complete a landing card immediately after their yacht arrived on 14 May last year.

Fled homeland

The Summary Court trial last September heard that the two Ethiopians fled their homeland in fear of their lives amid political unrest and conflict.

Summary Court heard the two men had suffered cruel and degrading treatment while on board the boat.

They were shouted at, forced to sleep on deck, subjected to racist taunts such as “monkey” and kept short of food and water, despite having bought their own supplies.

The yacht picked up Musa in Cape Verde and travelled to Sint Maarten, where Bruke was taken on board, and continued on to the US Virgin Islands.

The boat was boarded by Customs officers after it arrived in Cayman Brac on 14 May, and the two Ethiopians were found.

Their sentences for failure to complete a disembarkation card immediately on arrival – six months for the man and four months for the woman – were upheld.

Richards clarified that all the sentences should run concurrently from 14 May last year, the date they were first taken into custody.

The pair claimed not to recognise the authority of Summary Court and had to be removed from the courtroom for disruptive behaviour.

Later appearances were by video link from court cells, but the two turned their backs to the camera and refused to take part in the proceedings.

The man, however, appeared in court for the appeal, although his wife refused to attend.

Musa and Bruke, who were left in limbo after being stranded in Cayman, later staged an illegal escape with 10 Cuban nationals.