Sydney, Aug. 27 (PTI): A Belgian has been sentenced to 26 years in jail for the murder of an Indian youth whose body was found in a garbage bin in a Sydney suburb in June 2003.

The prosecution said Youssef Tecle Imnetu, 24, and his flatmate Basheeruddin Mohamed alias Ben, also an Indian, invited the victim, Shoukat Ali Mohammad, to their house and forced him to have heroin.

The duo then hit him on the head with a baseball bat and strangled him before dumping his body in a bin outside their Cleveland apartment.

The New South Wales Supreme Court gave Imnetu a maximum sentence of 26 years and eight months. He will be jailed for a minimum of 20 years. Ben, who owed the victim $20,000, was deported to India for breaching conditions of his student visa before police discovered his involvement in the crime. His whereabouts are unknown, media reports said.

Close-circuit TV footage showed Ben and Imnetu returning from a sports store carrying a sleeping bag and a baseball bat. Hours later, it showed them pushing the bin through their basement with Mohammad’s feet protruding from it.