Ali was ordered to steer boat by armed smugglers and unaware of deaths, court hearspublished at 11:36 BST
11:36 BST
Sean Seddon
Reporting from Canterbury Crown Court
Defending Alnour Mohamed Ali, barrister Paul Hogben says his client was born in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan. He and his parents, three brothers and six sisters, were forced to flee by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces during the civil war because they are not Arabs, and his village had been destroyed.
He left in 2019 and stayed in Libya, where he was imprisoned without cause on two occasions and suffered torture, including being starved and cut with a bayonet.
Ali has had no contact with his family for over a year because of the war and has no idea whether his parents or sibling are still alive, the court is told.
He was not paid to steer the boat, his barrister says, and was ordered to pilot the boat by armed smugglers before they embarked.
Ali had no knowledge of reports of four deaths prior to the crossing he was involved in, and only became aware of the deaths when he reached the UK.
Hogben says there has been “misreporting” of Ali’s case and accuses British authorities of “wrongly informing the media” that he was charged in relation to the deaths, which has had “severe repercussions” on his client.
He refers to a National Crime Agency press release which referenced the four deaths, alongside a picture of Ali, which he describes as “defamatory” and damaging, before asking the judge to take that into account during sentencing.