Piracy & Ship Attacks June 17, 2010
Dutch court sentences 5 Somali pirates to 5 years
Five Somali Pirates were sentenced to prison Thursday for attacking a Dutch- Antilles- flagged cargo ship with automatic weapons and RPGs.
The cargo ship SAMANYULO was attacked in the Gulf of Aden in 2009, Danish marines thwarted the attack. The prosecutors asked for a 7-year sentence but the judge decided on 5, citing the desperate state of Somalia that gives men like this motivation to attack for ransoms.