Saturday, October 23, 2010
Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate (SRM) James Ombura in his ruling noted that the suspects, who had admitted to being human traffickers, which they claimed is not legal in Somalia, were using the excuse as a scapegoat.
The magistrate further ordered that they be repatriated back to the lawless Horn of Africa nation after the end of their term.
This becomes the fifth group to be jailed at the Mombasa Law Courts, with previous cases earning the suspects from between 20 to five years jail terms in the prison.
Their lawyer, Jared Magolo, had argued that his clients had undergone untold suffering and torment by being locked up at the Kenyan prisons since they were handed over in May last year, and have never seen any of their relatives.
But Senior State Counsel, Alexander Muteti, argued that the suspects, whose boat had capsized as they tried to attack MV Nepheli, had actually intended to hijack the crew in the vessel, but "were just unfortunate" when their vessel overturned.
It was noted that the suspects had on May 6 last year, attacked the vessel while in the deep seas, but while still maneuvering the gear, were hit by the strong waves from the vessel and capsized.
In their defense, they told the court that they were human traffickers ferrying people from Bosaso in northern Somalia to Yemen when they met the tragedy but the court was not convinced by the theory, adding that the fact that some of their weapons had drowned, there were reasons to believe they were out in the seas due to piracy.
The magistrate noted that though there was no forensic evidence on the use of guns and other weapons, the piracy attempt had been proved.
They said they were "shocked" to be rescued by the team, which fed them, took their pictures before sailing with them in their ship to the port of Mombasa and handing them to the Kenyan government for prosecutions.
"The Spanish Navy that came to the suspects’ rescue was fully equipped and since the incident occurred during daytime, it is not possible that there could have been any confusion," Ombura said.
The captain of the Spanish warship had noted that they were on surveillance mission from Germany in the north to Somalia in the south when they received a distress call from the attacked vessel.
The pilot of a helicopter from the Spanish Navy which was patrolling the area said he noted there was an oil spill on the water where the Somali’s vessel had capsized.
Muteti had told the court the offense facing the suspects was becoming prevalent in the region and posed a serious threat to the court system.
Magolo on his part had asked the court to acquit the suspects and allow them to go back to Somalia to rebuild their lives.
Prosecutions are conducted by Kenyan prosecutors under Kenyan Law before a single magistrate.
The maximum sentence upon conviction for piracy offenses in Kenya is life imprisonment, under Kenyan Law - and indeed as a precondition for suspected pirates being transferred by EU NAVFOR - capital punishment is not available.
Source: Xinhua