Trial of alleged Somali pirates opens in Netherlands

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/10151792.stm

The first European trial of alleged Somali pirates has opened in the Netherlands.

Five men are accused of seeking to hijack a cargo ship registered in the Netherlands Antilles. They face up to 12 years in prison.

They were arrested in the Gulf of Aden last year when their high-speed boat was intercepted by a Danish patrol vessel.

Pirates attempted more than 200 attacks off the Somali coast in 2009.

Worldwide, there were an estimated 400 pirate attacks.

Many of the suspects arrested in military operations in the Gulf of Aden in recent years have had to be set free for lack of evidence.

This trial, which is taking place at the Rotterdam District Court in the Netherlands, is expected to last five days, and the judgement is expected to be handed down in the middle of next month.

Last Tuesday, a Yemeni court sentenced six Somali pirates to death and jailed six others for 10 years each for hijacking a Yemeni oil tanker and killing two cabin crew in April last year.

Also last Tuesday, another Somali, Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, pleaded guilty in a New York court to seizing a US ship and kidnapping its captain last year. He faces a minimum of 27 years in prison, and is expected to be sentenced in October.

Muse is the only surviving attacker of the Maersk Alabama merchant ship off Somalia's coast in April 2009.
Justice system

The five men being tried in Rotterdam were arrested in January last year after their high-speed boat with firearms was intercepted by a Danish frigate, as they were allegedly preparing to board the cargo ship Samanyolu, which was registered in the Caribbean.

The Netherlands issued European arrest warrants for the five men. They were flown on a military plane from the Gulf state of Bahrain to the Netherlands, where they have been in custody since.

The men's lawyers say they will challenge the jurisdiction of Dutch courts to try the case because the cargo vessel was under the flag of the Netherlands Antilles, which has its own justice system.

They will also argue that the men are poor fishermen, who acted out of despair.

But the prosecution says it is intent on defending the interests of the ships and their crews who were shot at and held hostage by pirates.