Kenya has canceled an agreement with the European Union to host trials for suspected Somali pirates, the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.
In a Friday statement, the ministry said it wished to "acknowledge that the MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) will effectively terminate on 30th September, 2010," Press TV reported.
The decision to stop handing over piracy suspects to the local authorities in Kenya was reportedly reached after it emerged that the country is already overwhelmed with ongoing cases against such suspects detained in its jails.
The western powers have been accused of reneging on promises to help the east African state deal with the buccaneers from war-torn Somalia.
Efforts by some western diplomats to save the accords have been futile, with the Kenyan government refusing to back down on the termination, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, who asked to remain anonymous.
Kenya has signed deals with several major naval powers, including the US and European Union, in order to take on the cases of suspected pirates intercepted by multinational warships in the waters off the Horn of Africa.
More than a hundred suspected Somali pirates are currently languishing in Kenyan jails where some have been sentenced to long jail terms, while others await trials.
The Indian Ocean island of Seychelles recently signed a similar agreement with the European Union to hold suspected pirates, but lamented its lack of capacity to prosecute them.
The terminations comes as a court in the Kenyan port town of Mombasa Thursday sentenced 11 Somalis to five years apiece for attempting to hijack a Liberian-flagged ship last year.
The suspects were charged with attacking the MV Safmarine Asia in April 2009. An EU Navfor patrol ship thwarted the attack and seized the men, who were then handed over to Kenya.
Somalia-based pirates have wreaked havoc in international waters, seizing merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping regions.
Source: PressTV
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