Singapore/Jakarta: Australian fugitives smuggled to Indonesia from remote Queensland say they were fleeing because of threats from a suspected “competitor” to their NSW tobacco business, Indonesian prosecutors say.
Zulfukar Aljubouri and Duong Tan Le have been detained in Indonesia since their illicit flight from Port Stewart, in Far North Queensland, touched down in Merauke in the restive province of South Papua on November 17.
So has the Australian pilot, Jay Victor Davis, who told an Indonesian court this week he would not have collected the passengers had he known they did not have passports or visas and were illegally trying to enter Indonesia.
All three face maximum jail sentences of five years.
Aljubouri, 34, was on bail in NSW for kidnapping offences when he fled and Duong, 35, was wanted in NSW on three outstanding warrants, including for large-scale drug supply, according to the Australian Federal Police.
Davis’ boss, Grant Bernard Schultz, who ran charter company Stirling Aviation, was charged by the AFP in March, accused of co-ordinating “a sophisticated people-smuggling operation to help the fugitives escape from Australia”.
Indonesian officials initially believed the stowaways had sought to stay in Indonesia, but prosecutor Kasmawati, who goes by one name, said their statements suggested they had planned to return to their countries of birth – Aljubouri to Iran, and Duong to Vietnam.
“[Aljubouri] showed a picture of his house in Australia that had been shot at, and he felt unsafe for himself and his family to live in Australia,” she said. “We asked who threatened them. He believed it came from their [tobacco] competitor.”
Davis, 32, faced court for the first time in Merauke this week.
“He said [to the court], ‘Had I known what was instructed was illegal, I would have not done it. But I was told to collect the passengers’,” Davis’s defence lawyer, Erwin Siregar, told this masthead after the hearing.
The AFP alleges the plane’s transponder was deactivated between Coen and Port Stewart, and then reactivated over international waters.
The fourth person on the plane was an Indonesian pilot, whom Kasmawati said “received an invitation” to train with Stirling Aviation in October 2025 with the promise of a certificate at its conclusion.
“The invitation stated that part of the training was flying a plane into Indonesian territory,” she said. “This is [the Indonesian pilot’s] testimony”.
Kasmawati said the pilots were about to take off from the remote Queensland community of Coen when they were told to fly to nearby Port Stewart and pick up two passengers.
“As an experienced pilot who has been with Stirling since 2023, he [Davis] should understand that cross-border flights need a passport and visa, however, as ‘the condition was hectic’, as he stated, he just immediately took them [without checking],” she said.
Kasmawati said a mystery man in Indonesia named “Simon” might have been involved, supposedly telling Aljubouri that relevant documents would be waiting for him upon arrival in South Papua.
Schultz was bailed at Ipswich Magistrates Court in March, and Stirling Aviation has gone into liquidation. Schultz could not be reached for comment.
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Zach Hope is South-East Asia correspondent. He is a former reporter at the Brisbane Times.Connect via email.
Karuni Rompies is assistant Indonesia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X.From our partners
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