A controlling and violent husband has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after deliberately stranding his wife overseas without a passport.
Mohamed Ahmed Omer, 52, is the first person in Victoria to be found guilty of "exit trafficking", following the incident a decade ago.
Exit trafficking is defined as a person coercing, forcing or threatening another to leave Australia against their will.
Omer, who is an Australian citizen, secretly withdrew support for his then-wife's visa in June 2014 and made false claims to authorities that she had abused and "abandoned" their two young children.
In September 2014, Omer booked a holiday from Melbourne to Sudan with the woman and the children.
He ditched her in Sudan after quietly changing the return flight date, taking her passport and identity documents, and boarding a plane back to Australia with the children.
The County Court heard it took the woman more than a year to have her visa reinstated and return to Australia. She has since been reunited with the 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."
Omer was found guilty of exit trafficking in April by a jury, following a month-long trial.
Omer described as 'humanitarian' by former friends despite crime
The court heard Omer was an expert in food security and agriculture who held several university qualifications, including a PhD in applied chemistry.
The judge said "impressive" character references had been provided on his behalf by former friends and colleagues who described him as a humanitarian committed to helping people in his homeland, Sudan.
That compassion was at odds with the crime he committed, Judge Gucciardo noted, which deprived his children of their mother's care.
The woman first arrived in Australia in April 2012, two years after the pair wed in an arranged marriage in Sudan.
Judge Gucciardo said he accepted evidence that Omer behaved aggressively and threatened the woman during the marriage.
Omer was also accused of controlling the woman's phone usage and bank accounts, the court heard.
Nurses who visited the woman during the period of abuse described her as a "gentle, caring and responsive mother" who was left depressed by Omer's treatment.
Jury rejects defence arguments
Prosecutors said the family's 2014 trip to Sudan was framed by Omer as a one-month holiday.
Omer told police in 2016 that he feared for his children's health and safety while in Sudan — claims the judge said the jury must have rejected by finding him guilty.
Judge Gucciardo said the offending "had a lasting and traumatic impact" on the woman.
"I can see little evidence of contrition or remorse for your conduct," Judge Gucciardo said.
Omer, who has already spent six months in custody, could be released on parole after serving three years and three months of his sentence.
