AfricaNews Monitoring Team Credit: BBC
A Dutch court has sentenced five Somali men to five years in prison for attacking a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden last year, in the first such case to come to trial in Europe. The men were convicted in Rotterdam of attacking a Dutch Antilles-flagged ship, the Samanyolu.
They were arrested in the Gulf of Aden last year when their high-speed boat was intercepted by a Danish frigate.
Pirates attempted more than 200 attacks off the Somali coast in 2009.
The five men had pleaded not guilty at the opening of the trial last month, saying they had been on a simple fishing trip.
They were arrested in January last year after allegedly preparing to board the Samanyolu, which had a Turkish crew on board.
The judge said he took into account the difficult conditions in Somalia that led the men to piracy.
"It is a lucky coincidence that nobody was killed or wounded" in the attack, he said.
