Iraqi national Maythem Kamil Radhi is accused of being part of a syndicate that put 421 people on an overcrowded and dilapidated vessel known as SIEV-X in 2001.

The attempt ended with 353 people drowning, 146 of them children, in Indonesian waters.

Radhi, 45, is not charged over the deaths, but was committed on Wednesday to stand trial on one charge of bringing groups of non-citizens into Australia after an earlier hearing in Brisbane Magistrates Court.

The case against Radhi suggests he played a "facilitation" role before the ill-fated voyage left Indonesia, commonwealth prosecutor Daniel Caruana said during the hearing.

Some witnesses say he was present when money was negotiated, but they "more consistently" remembered him as an organiser, Mr Caruana said.

Much of the allegation against Radhi centres on him taking care of logistics, including buses between hotels and beaches.

The hearing heard from Fawzi Al Majid who said hundreds of people were taken by bus to a hotel in Sumatra where they spent four days waiting for the boat.

There were up to eight rooms only for women and children so the men stayed in the hotel grounds, he told the hearing.

Mr Al Majid said he paid $1000 to Radhi and another man to take part in the operation.

But after the boat sank some money was paid back by a third man.

"They assumed if they give us the money we won't talk anything to the police," Mr Al Majid, testifying by video-link, said through an interpreter.

"Many people died from that accident and they want to shut the people's mouth with this money."

The committal was also told some of those who had paid to be smuggled refused to leave fearing the boat would never make the journey.

But others threatened the captain, warning him to continue.

The captain stopped many times before the boat broke down about 13 hours into the journey, Raad Zubari told the hearing.

But each time people tried to "convince him by money or sometime they threatened him and hit him," Mr Zubari said through an interpreter.

Another witness Quasy Al Majid said when people offered the captain money, he replied that he did not want it and the boat would not make it to Australia.

An arrest warrant for Radhi was issued in a Brisbane court in 2011.

But the process was delayed while his eligibility for extradition was argued in courts in New Zealand, where he had been living with his wife and three children since 2009.

Radhi surrendered about two years ago after deciding to stop pursuing appeals against his extradition.

He remains in custody and will stand trial in the Brisbane District Court on a date yet to be decided.

Australian Associated Press