Saturday June 11, 2016
By Sharon Uranie

TheSomalisstood accused of attacking a dhow and holding theIndiancrew as hostages, as well as for using the dhow as a pirate ship to attack an oil tanker.

The offences were said to have been committed in theGulf of Adenbetween January 1 and January 18, 2014.

The five suspectedpiratesweretransferred to Seychelles on January 30, 2014byFrenchnaval shipFS Siroco, which was part of theEUNaval Force, in collaboration with aJapaneseair force plane.

Their transfer to theIndianOcean island nation for prosecution was thanks to a pirate transfer agreement signed betweenEUand the Seychelles in December 2009.

In an interview on national television Friday evening, the principal state counsel David Esparon said the 12 year sentence imposed by the court was "a great victory for Seychelles and the international community.”

He noted that the case had its element of difficulty, as it was not possible to bring theIndiancrew saved during the operation led by theFrenchnaval shipto testify during the trial.

In MarchJudge Dodin had ordered that the lastpiracycase standing before the SeychellesSupreme Courtshould be heard until the end, rejecting a motion filed by the lawyer of the five accused that there was ‘no case to answer.' The lawyer was arguing that there’s no evidence that they were guilty of thepiracycharges against them.

Seychelles, a 115-island archipelago in the westernIndianOcean, ended up placing itself at the forefront of the fight againstpiracyas the scourge, which began to plague theIndianOcean in 2005, had a direct impact on the country's tourism and fisheries sectors.

Over the last six years the island nation has conducted nearly 20piracytrials, convicted over a hundred suspectedpirates,more than any other country in the region.

The number ofSomalisincarcerated at the Seychelles main detention facility, the Montagne Posée prison stood at 22 in March this year.

This includes the last group of five sentenced on Friday. The 17 others had already been convicted and were awaiting transfer to continue serving their sentences in their homeland.

According to the TV report, Judge Dodin has notmade an order for the fiveSomalissentenced on Friday to be transferred to their homeland to serve their 12 year sentence.