Four Somali pirates were sentenced to seven years each in prison
on Wednesday by a Kenyan court that found them guilty of hijacking a fishing
dhow in the Indian Ocean in 2010.
Prosecutors told the court in Mombasa the four were armed with
rocket-propelled grenades, an AK-47 rifle, a pistol and other weapons when they
took control of the dhow by firing at the crew.
Although the number of attacks has fallen markedly since 2011
thanks to tougher security aboard ships and increased Western naval patrols,
piracy emanating from the Horn of Africa nation may still cost the world
economy about $18 billion a year, the World Bank said in April.
The men, Abdirahman Isse Mohamed, Mohamed Osman Farah, Feisal Abdi
Muse and Noor Ali Mohamed, were arrested by Spanish naval forces and handed
over to Kenyan authorities, as Somalia was not considered able to try them
properly.
They all denied the charges of piracy.
The men's lawyer, Jared Magolo, branded the sentence unfair as
they had been detained for three years before the trial at a maximum security
Kenyan prison and said he would seek his clients' consent to appeal.
Kenya is one of a few countries that are prosecuting pirates,
alongside Seychelles and Mauritius. But the cases are notoriously difficult to
prosecute and take a long time to complete.
In July, nine Somalis were sentenced in Kenya to five years in
prison each for attempting to hijack a German merchant vessel MV Courier in the
Gulf of Aden in March 2009.
Another nine Somalis were handed a similar sentence in June, after
also being found guilty of hijacking a ship in the Gulf of Aden in 2010.
In a sign that piracy is still a threat, the European Union Naval
Force for Somalia, said last week that a fully loaded crude oil supertanker
fought off and repulsed pirates off the Somali coast on October 11
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