Garowe Online (Garowe)
16 October 2009
Bossaso, Somalia — A court in Somalia' s Puntland region has sentenced six pirates to various jail terms, as the regional government continues to crack down on piracy, Radio Garowe reports.
The group of 10 pirates was sentenced at the Bossaso Court in Puntland, a self-governing state in northeastern Somalia.
Five of the pirates were sentenced to serve five-year jail terms, according to Puntland prosecutors. The five pirates were handed over to Puntland authorities on Thursday by French naval forces in an exchange reported by local and international media.
The other five pirates were apprehended by Puntland security forces near the coast of Qaw, located 40km east of the Gulf of Aden port of Bossaso, Puntland's commercial hub. They were sentenced to serve three-year jail terms each.
The Bossaso Court seized the pirates' property, including 42 weapons such as pistols and rifles and 21 speedboats, officials said.
Court sources said French naval forces had "brought evidence" for use by prosecturos in the Bossaso Court. Some of the sentenced pirates, who were transferred to Puntland's main prison, are reportedly from regions outside the Puntland jurisdiction in central Somalia.
Since the Puntland presidential election in Jan. 2009, more than 120 sentenced pirates jailed in Puntland, although security officials complain of not receiving enough support from the international community.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Garowe Online. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
