Five jailed on piracy charges

FIVE Somali men were sentenced to prison yesterday for attacking a Dutch-Antilles-flagged cargo ship with automatic weapons and a rocket-propelled grenade, in the first piracy case to come to trial in Europe in modern times.

The five were convicted of assaulting the Samanyulo in the Gulf of Aden in 2009 – an attack thwarted up by helicopter-borne Danish marines. Each of the attackers was sentenced to five years in prison.

“Piracy is a serious crime that must be powerfully resisted,” said presiding judge Klein Wolterink.

But one of the defendants called the decision unfair.

“Netherlands don’t like Muslim people,” Sayid Ali Garaar, 39, repeated. “This is not legal.”

During the trial Garaar wept and said poverty had driven him to desperation.

Maritime experts say the trial is unlikely to deter the piracy.