A man has become the first person to be successfully prosecuted in Victoria for the offence of "exit trafficking", after a jury found him guilty of stranding his wife overseas.
Mohamed Ahmed Omer faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in jail, with a County Court judge to decide his penalty this year.
After a month-long trial, jurors returned a guilty verdict against Omer on Monday afternoon.
During the trial, prosecutor John Saunders said Omer was in an arranged marriage with the woman, who moved to Australia in 2012 and was on a sponsored partner visa.
Omer was described as a controlling husband, who limited his wife's freedom and access to money and telephone calls.
In June 2014, Omer withdrew his support for his wife's partner visa — rendering it invalid — but did not tell the woman.
Three months later the pair travelled to Sudan with their two children.
Omer secretly changed the return flight tickets and brought the children home, leaving his wife stuck in Sudan without a passport.
It took the woman two years to be able to return to Australia.
Victims of exit trafficking 'suffering in silence'
Omer was charged by Federal Police in March 2022, after an investigation by the force's human trafficking team.
At the time, AFP Acting Commander Ray Imbriano said exit trafficking was a crime that was rarely spoken about despite being an increasing problem.
"It is often unreported and victims in our communities are suffering in silence," he said.
Omer pleaded not guilty at the trial and denied deceiving the woman, who has now divorced him.
The AFP secured its first exit trafficking conviction in 2021, charging a Sydney man who used threats, coercion and deception to force a woman and her child to return to India.
The man was jailed for 21 months.
