An Australian man has been sentenced to four and a half years in jail for leaving his wife stranded in Sudan without a passport.
Mohamed Ahmed Omer, 52, a Sudanese-born Australian citizen has been found guilty of “exit trafficking” in a first such case in Victoria.
Exit trafficking is a form of human trafficking where individuals are coerced or deceived to leave a country against their will.
The man, who is an Australian citizen, pleaded not guilty to the charge of abandoning his wife in Sudan under the guise of a holiday where she was forced to spend more than a year.
In June 2014, Omer secretly withdrew support from the visa of his then wife and made claims that she abused their two children, aged six months and two.
Three months later he took a holiday from Melbourne to Sudan with his wife and the children. Unbeknownst to his wife, he boarded a plane back to Australia with the children after stealing her passport and identity documents.
Judge Frank Gucciardo said what Omer did “required a degree of planning”.
“You treated her as a chattel that could be simply discarded,” he said. “She was grief-stricken and traumatised by the departure of her children with you.”
The County Court was told that it took her more than a year to have her visa reinstated and return to Australia. She was then reunited with her children.
"Your deception was intentional and resulted in [the woman’s] compliance in the exit from Australia," Judge Frank Gucciardo said on Tuesday.
"At all times you had reassured her that she would be able to return to Australia."
She returned to Australia after 16 months of struggle but her husband continued to keep her children. She was later reunited with the children after a legal battle.
The court found him guilty in April after a month-long trial.
The couple was married through a match arranged by their families in 2010 in Sudan. The woman moved to Australia in April 2012 on a partner visa and the two had their first child in 2014.
The husband had a PhD in applied chemistry and is an expert in food security and agriculture.
The judge said he received an impressive character references from his former friends and colleagues who said he was a person committed to humanitarian work in home country.
However, it was in contrast to the allegations against him which included his aggressive and threatening behaviour towards his wife during their marriage, according to the court.
He was also accused of controlling the woman’s phone usage as well as her bank accounts, the court heard.
"I can see little evidence of contrition or remorse for your conduct," Judge Gucciardo said.
