A 19-year-old Afghan man has been sentenced to six years in an Indonesian prison for his part in a people-smuggling operation that ended in tragedy.

Dawood Amiri, also known as Irfan, was arrested in June last year after a boat carrying 200 people sank north of Christmas Island.

About 90 people died in the tragedy.

Irfan was arrested in Indonesia after a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police.

Police say he admitted involvement in organising the failed boat trip and three other asylum seeker boats.

On Wednesday Irfan faced the East Jakarta district court on charges of people smuggling.

The court heard each person on the boat paid $US5,500 to get to Australia.

Irfan was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $75,000.

After the verdict, he was led away to a cell, where he told reporters he did not want to talk about the case.

He has a week to consider whether to appeal against the verdict.

Irfan's capture also led police to arrest a Pakistani man and five Indonesian soldiers who were allegedly working for the same people-smuggling syndicate.