Refugee retracts SIEV 36 threat statement
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Smoke and flames billow from the SIEV 36 after the fatal blast in April last year. (Australian Defence Force)
The first refugee to give evidence at a coronial inquest into last year's fatal SIEV 36 boat blast says he cannot remember telling police that a fellow passenger threatened to blow up the boat.
The refugee was one of 47 asylum seekers on the vessel when it caught fire near Ashmore Reef in April last year.
The deliberately-lit blast killed five of his fellow Afghan passengers.
All of the asylum seekers who survived the incident have since been granted refugee status.
The Northern Territory coroner is investigating whether the deaths of the five men could have been prevented.
The inquest today heard that the young refugee, who cannot be named because he was a minor at the time of the blast, told police in a signed statement that there was a skirmish between passengers and he could smell fuel on the morning of the blast.
He told police that a passenger had told him they had spilt fuel on the boat and then an Afghan man was shouting, "I'm burning the boat, I'm killing myself".
But today, the young man told the inquest he does not remember that happening and he does not know why he told police that.
He says now all he can remember is shouting and the smell of fuel.
He says his statements to police after the blast are now not true.
He also told the inquest he paid people smugglers US$10,000 to come to Australia via Indonesia.
He said he left Afghanistan to save his life and went to Pakistan.
The inquest continues.
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