A Mombasa court has finally allowed seven Somali pirates on trial to communicate with their relatives back in Somalia.
Defence counsel Francis Khadima, who is representing the seven accused - Mohamed Abdi, Abshsir Salat, Abdullahi Ahmed Hussein, Abdirahman Hussein Hassan, Abdikadir Abdullahi,Hassan Isemuse and Feysal Ali Hussein -sought application for the accused to be allowed to communicate with their relatives before Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Timothy Gesora.
Khadima told the court that suspension of communication between the accused and relatives was a violation of their human rights.
Khadima said that lack of communication had hindered remittance of advocate's fees by the relatives of the accused.
He said that after trying to intervene, he was told by prison authorities that communication was terminated due to undisclosed security concerns and they were waiting for authorization from the Commissioner of Prisons for the order to be lifted.
"If the government had agreed to try the suspects here, then the trial should be done within the law", argued Khadima
He further said that Somalia was a failed state where there were no functioning postal services and registration of persons.
He said that the only effective way to communicate with the suspects' relatives was through mobile phones.
Magistrate Gesora lifted the ban on condition that communication shall be made through mobile phone in the presence of an investigator and an interpreter, and that the communication be limited by both parties including prison officers.
The case that was scheduled to start on Thursday and run for three consecutive days will start Friday because of delays in the arrival of witnesses.
Pirates have continued attacking commercial ships in the Indian Ocean off Somali waters despite the presence of navies deployed by the international community.
Source: kbc.co.ke
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