Press Release Somaliland Courts of Justice Prosecute Pirates

15th February 2010

Press Release

Source: Somalilandpress/AFP

Subject: Somaliland Pirate Prosecutions – 14th February – Somaliland Courts Prosecute Pirates – From Coastguard 19th December Arrests

SOMALILAND: Somali pirates get 15-year Sentences – Officials Confirm.

14th February 2010 - BERBERA, (Somaliland) — The Court in Somaliland handed out 15-year prison sentences to 11 pirates on Sunday, the presiding judge said.

Prosecutors at the Court in Berbera, in the breakaway northern state of Somaliland, brought a number of charges against the men, including piracy and attempted armed kidnapping. They showed the court photos obtained from NATO naval forces showing the pirates when they were arrested last December.

The trial, which lasted a week, was finally concluded today after the evidence brought before the court showed that the eleven were involved in piracy and hijacking. The court finally announced its verdict — a jail term of 15 years each”, Osman Ibrahim Dahir, the presiding judge, told AFP by phone from Berbera.

The pirates were detained last December after they attacked an International Naval Force ship, mistaking it for a commercial ship off the Somali coast.

The International Naval Coalition Forces released them after disarming them, but they were arrested against a few days later by the Somaliland Coastguards who spotted them in a coastal village near the Somaliland border with Djibouti.

“Some of the pirates confessed their crimes while others were still reluctant to confess, but they were sentenced and sent to jail,” Jamal Abdikarin, security officer in Berbera told AFP by phone.

The Coastguard also recently prevented the Libyan owned (North Korean Flagged) hijacked vessel M/V RIM from entering the fishing town of Las Qoray, near the Somaliland/Puntland border to the east, but were unable to recapture the vessel before it entered Puntland territorial waters.



Editor’s Notes:

The Somaliland Coastguard (Maritime Police) is part of the Ministry of Interior of the Government of the Republic of Somaliland. Based in the Port of Berbera, they patrol and protect their population along 860Kms of Gulf of Aden Coastline, from the Djibouti border on the North-West, to the Puntland border to the North-East.

To date, the Somaliland Coastguard has arrested 61 Pirates, including those detained on 19th December, with 58 successfully prosecuted and 3 awaiting trial. Triton International Ltd is a Maritime Risk & Security Management Company based in London, who are the Official Training & Mentoring Partners of the Somaliland Coastguard and conduct both their Partnership and Commercial Operations from Hargeisa and the Port of Berbera in Somaliland. They are the representatives of the Somaliland Government, with the Coastguard at the International Maritime Organisation Contact Group for Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) and work to raise both awareness and funding for the Coastguard and their Operations.

For Press Release information or any further details about the Somaliland Coastguard or Triton International Ltd, they can be contacted on:

Triton International Ltd:

Tel UK Direct: +44 207 193 0497
UK Mobile: +44 7818 092 244
UK Office: +44 207 193 9168
USA Office: +1 202 657 4918
Fax UK: +44 207 419 6332
E-Mail: Info@tritoninternationalltd.com
BerberaOps@tritoninternationalltd.com
VesselOps@tritoninternationalltd.com
Coastguard@tritoninternationalltd.com

www.tritoninternationalltd.com

Triton International Ltd is the Strategic Partners to the Somaliland Coastguard
and their Fight against Piracy.