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Commonwealth prosecutors have been forced to abandon people smuggling charges against an Indonesian teenager.
There were emotional scenes in the Melbourne Magistrates Court as charges were dropped against the boy, who has spent more than a year in custody, including in an adult prison.
Victoria Legal Aid lawyers recently travelled to Indonesia to prove Syrafudin Min was only 17 when the Navy intercepted the boat he was travelling on near Christmas Island last year.
The boy was working as a deckhand on the vessel.
Like others being held in Australia on people smuggling charges, he was facing a five-year jail term.
But he will now return to his family on Rote Island.
It is the second case in a month in which the Commonwealth has been forced to drop charges against a minor.
Topics:
immigration,
crime,
melbourne-3000,
indonesia
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